The president of Road to Recovery, a group that supports victims of sexual abuse, said he is skeptical of the district attorney’s handling of the allegations against Bernie Fine.

‘The whole thing is very strange,’ said Robert Hoatson, president and co-founder of Road to Recovery.

Hoatson has commented publicly on the Fine allegations and made several trips to Syracuse to show support for the victims. He has encouraged other potential victims to speak. He said he does not understand why DA William Fitzpatrick said in a press conference on Dec. 7 that there was not a fourth victim.

‘I have not changed my opinion on anything I said two weeks ago,’ Fitzpatrick told The Daily Orange.

The fourth man to make accusations against Fine, Floyd VanHooser, said Fine sexually abused him many times during the past four decades, according to The Post-Standard. Hoatson said the DA’s office was aware of the claims.

Hoatson said he first spoke to Cindy Clarke, VanHooser’s ex-girlfriend, on Nov. 21, when she told him someone she knew was also abused by Fine. Hoatson encouraged her to contact the DA’s office and the police, which she told Hoatson she did, he said.

But Clarke did not feel she was treated appropriately by the DA’s office, Hoatson said. ‘She felt she was just dismissed by them.’

The Syracuse Police Department interviewed VanHooser, who is in prison at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., about the alleged abuse last month after ESPN broke the initial allegations against Fine, according to The Post-Standard. VanHooser is serving 16 years to life for burglaries.

VanHooser told The Post-Standard the most recent abuse took place this summer, when Fine paid him $300 to perform oral sex.

Altogether, four men have come forward and made allegations that Fine, former Syracuse University associate men’s basketball coach, sexually abused them. Hoatson also said VanHooser told him of at least two other men who were allegedly abused by Fine. No other victims have publicly accused Fine, who was fired from the university on Nov. 27.

Hoatson said he thinks the DA is trying to put the case to rest by dismissing the credibility of VanHooser and Zach Tomaselli, the third person to come forward with allegations against Fine. It does not make sense that Fitzpatrick announced the first two accusers were credible and then ‘bad-mouthed’ VanHooser and Tomaselli, Hoatson said.

‘I think what he was doing is trying to say, ‘I’m ending this package. We find victims one and two are credible, but we can’t do anything because of the law. And you know what? I’m going to put victims three and four down and basically make believe they don’t exist so the DA’s office is now free of any responsibility,” Hoatson said.

Fitzpatrick said the evidence surrounding VanHooser’s claims is inconsistent. If Fine is arrested in connection with VanHooser’s claims, the DA’s office will not prosecute, he said.

‘My office isn’t planning on making any arrests, and if there is an arrest made, we’re not planning on prosecuting it,’ Fitzpatrick said.

kronayne@syr.edu

Staff writer Michael Cohen contributed reporting to this article.

Published on December 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm