Former Syracuse assistant Bernie Fine has dropped his defamation lawsuit against ESPN. It was not a strong case. [Daily Orange]

Former Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine is preparing a lawsuit against ESPN, and will claim the network defamed him when it reported claims of child sexual abuse lodged by two former ballboys.

Last night, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim took time out of his post-game press conference to take a shot at ESPN's Andy Katz. "I'll answer anybody's question but yours," Boeheim said, "because you're an idiot and really a disloyal person."

The U.S. attorney's office, which began conducting an investigation into allegations against Bernie Fine one year ago this month, announced this morning that it was closing that inquiry and filing no charges against Jim Boeheim's former longtime assistant, who had been fired in the wake of the allegations. We remind…

Reader John writes in with a question addressed to me but much better suited for Deadspin's commenters:

Yesterday Laurie Fine went to a castle to announce that her husband, Bernie, the former Syracuse basketball assistant, hadn't molested anybody, and that she would be suing ESPN for libel for repeating that charge, among others. Today, ESPN and one of Fine's accusers returned her lakeside volley.

GENEVA, N.Y.—At 11 a.m. today, Laurie Fine stood outside of a castle about an hour west of the Syracuse University apartments in which, according to a former ball boy's testimony, she had sex with Syracuse men's basketball players. Here, flanked by the sun, the tweeting birds, and the rippling waters of Lake Seneca,…

That "major announcement" that Laurie Fine promised for us later this morning, at a castle for some reason? It's exactly what you thought. Fine is bringing a libel lawsuit against ESPN, reporter Mark Schwarz, and producer Arty Berko for their reporting of child sexual abuse allegations against former Syracuse coach…

Pictured is Belhurst Castle in Geneva, N.Y. Not a terribly inviting place. Nonetheless—or perhaps therefore—Laurie Fine, wife of accused molester (and former Syracuse assistant basketball coach) Bernie Fine, will speak there on Wednesday. Two of Fine's accusers, Zach Tomaselli and Floyd VanHooser, have retracted their…

Back in January, once portions of his story began not adding up, Zach Tomaselli admitted he had lied about allegations that former Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine sexually abused him. That Tomaselli says so again in a televised report that aired this morning on CNY Central News is nothing new. But…

Don't say we didn't tell you about this two months ago. Now Bobby Davis has filed an affidavit in New York Supreme Court claiming that Laurie Fine, wife of Syracuse assistant Bernie Fine, semi-openly carried on sexual relationships with members of the basketball team, even comparing penis sizes with another coach's…

First, it was prison inmate Floyd VanHooser, the alleged fourth victim. Now, it's Zach Tomaselli, who had been the third man to come forward. Tomaselli told the Daily Orange, the Syracuse student newspaper, that he had doctored emails to bolster his claim that Fine, the former Syracuse basketball assistant coach, had…

In letters (provided below) obtained by the Post-Standard, Floyd VanHooser, the prison inmate who accused Bernie Fine of sexually abusing him since 1969, has admitted to fabricating his story.

A prison inmate has came forward as the fourth alleged victim of Bernie Fine, the former Syracuse basketball assistant who was fired amid sexual abuse charges on Nov. 27.

Former ball boy Bobby Davis and his stepbrother Mike Lang have filed suit in New York's State Supreme Court, but the man who allegedly molested them as teenagers isn't named. Instead, Davis and Fine have enlisted the services of Gloria Allred to represent them in a defamation suit against the university and head coach…

Here's the latest on the child sex abuse allegations against former Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine. It's starting to look like Fine might indeed escape criminal prosecution for two reasons:

Jason Whitlock had Bernie Fine's third accuser, Zach Tomaselli, on his podcast today. The 23-year-old spoke clearly and in detail about his memories of the two occasions he spent time with Bernie Fine, one of which he says involved sexual abuse. During the hour-long segment, Tomaselli told Whitlock that he believes…

Another strange side-story to the Bernie Fine child sex abuse scandal emerged this week, when a 23-year-old from Lewiston, Maine, came forward as the former Syracuse coach's third alleged victim. The accuser, Zach Tomaselli, also has a sex abuse charge of his own.

ESPN's Mark Schwarz, the reporter who spent eight years not reporting the story that a Syracuse ballboy had accused assistant coach Bernie Fine of molesting him, has now taken his own turn in the spotlight on the ESPN Rationalization Tour by talking to Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch. As Deitsch recounts, after…

One of the stranger aspects of that taped phone conversation between former ball boy Bobby Davis and accused molester Bernie Fine's wife, Laurie, is the apparent revelation that Davis had a sexual relationship with Laurie. He's not the only one—and there might be a sex tape to prove it, a media source tells us.