Ex-Syracuse Coach Bernie Fine's Wife Accused of Sexual Relationships with Players

Jan. 31, 2012 — -- The wife of former Syracuse University assistant men's basketball coach Bernie Fine has been accused of having sexual relationships with basketball team players by two of the men that accused Fine of sexually molesting them when they were ball boys.

The affidavit was filed on Monday in New York State Supreme Court by attorney Gloria Allred, on behalf of her clients Robert Davis and his step-brother Michael Lang.

"For years, Bernie Fine's wife, Laurie Fine, had sexual relationships with basketball team players," Davis said in the affidavit. "Laurie Fine and another coach's wife used to also speak openly about their sexual relationship with two of the players and what each of them liked to do in bed."

The affidavit is part of a slander lawsuit against head coach Jim Boeheim. Davis and Lang allege that Boeheim knew about the improper behavior and did not take action to stop it.

In the days following the allegations against Fine, Boeheim defended his assistant coach and said the accusers were lying, implying that they were trying to cash in following the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. Eventually, Boeheim apologized for the comments and supported Fine's dismissal.

Davis alleges that Boeheim "had countless occasions to observe that Fine's behavior and unusual closeness and relationship with me and other ball-boys was problematic."

In addition to observing Fine's unusually close relationship with the boys, Davis said that the behavior of Bernie Fine's wife, Laurie Fine, would also have tipped Boeheim off as to what was going on with the young ball boys. He alleges that Laurie Fine's sexual relationships with players were "common knowledge" and a "routine source of jokes and conversation."

An attorney for the Fines denied the claims in the affidavit.

"Only the news media can think that 20-year-old hearsay is newsworthy if it is salacious enough," Edward Z. Menkin said in an email to The Associated Press. "This is both desperate and disgusting, an example of an irresponsible and unprofessional lawyer flailing about to keep a dying lawsuit in the public eye."

Menkin did not reply to a request from ABC News for comment.

Allred said that the university must be held accountable for the inappropriate relationships Laurie Fine was allegedly having.

"If Laurie Fine was having multiple sexual relationships with basketball players, then the university must explain how this could have been taking place for years right under Coach Boeheim's nose without his being aware of it and without the university's doing anything about it," Allred wrote in an email to the Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse today.

The lawsuit alleges that Laurie Fine had sexual relationships with at least two players and possibly more. It also accuses another unnamed coach's wife of doing the same.

"Mrs. Fine's approach to the different players was always the same -- she would focus on a particular player and start paying enormous attention to that one player, by doing the player's laundry, lending him her car, giving the player money and gifts, including jewelry, and generally ingratiating herself into the player's life until it became clear that they were in an intimate relationship," Davis alleged.

Fine, 65, had been an assistant coach at Syracuse for 36 years, the longest active streak at one school among Division I assistant coaches. He was fired at the end of November 2011.