10/05/2012 - Myclipp

USA Today/ - News, Sáb, 12 de Maio de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Judge dismisses defamation suit against
Boeheim, Syracuse
A judge dismissed the defamation lawsuit against
Syracuse University and men's basketball coach Jim
Boeheim Friday.
The suit was filed over comments Boeheim made to
the media in defense of associate head coach Bernie
Fine after former Syracuse ball boys Bobby Davis and
Mike Lang accused Fine of molesting them when they
were children.
When the news of the allegations broke, Boeheim told
ESPN that Davis was telling \"a bunch of a thousand
lies\" and said Davis was looking to cash in on the
publicity surrounding the Penn State child sex abuse
scandal.
State Supreme Court Justice Brian DeJoseph, a
graduate of Syracuse University and its law school,
ruled that Boeheim's comments were statements of
opinion, not fact, and were protected from defamation
claims.
\"The content, tone, and purpose of Boeheim's
statments would clearly signal to the reasonable
reader that what was being read in the articles
published in days after the initial ESPN report were
likely to be an opinion - a biased, passionate, and
defensive point of view of a basketball coach - rather
than objective fact,\" DeJoseph wrote in a 30-page
decision, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Davis, 40, and Lang, 45, hired attorney Gloria Allred
and filed the lawsuit in late December.
Fine was fired in the wake of the allegations. He has
denied any wrongdoing.
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