Standing in front of about a dozen television cameras at the Belhurst Castle in Geneva, N.Y., about 50 miles west of Syracuse, Fine and her lawyer, Lawrence Fisher of Pittsburgh, called for ESPN reporter Marc Schwarz and producer Arty Berko to apologize and "be punished" for what Fisher called "reckless" reporting last fall and what Laurie Fine called "horrible lies."
Although Bernie Fine was not at the announcement, "Bernie does support this lawsuit and he's behind me 100 percent," his wife said.
MORE: PDF of Laurie Fine's libel suit vs. ESPN
MORE: Fine's wife alleged to have had sex with players
MORE: Audio: Bernie Fine's wife says she knew 'everything'
She spoke to him this morning and he "wished her luck," on Wednesday's announcement, Fisher said.
Laurie Fine grew emotional when she said, "I'm here today as a wife and a mother who has had to endure the trauma of being smeared in the public as a monster. ? My life has been destroyed through the defamation I have suffered and this will last a lifetime."
The suit charges ESPN producer, Arty Berko, and reporter, Mark Schwarz of irresponsibly reporting accusations against Bernie Fine, who was fired in November, and taking Laurie Fine's words from a secretly taped phone conversation she had with Davis about her husband's actions. The lawsuit says ESPN "spitefully destroyed Laurie Fine's reputation in an attempt to capitalize financially in the wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal."
Fine's husband, Bernie, is not a plaintiff in the 44-page lawsuit, which her lawyers provided to USA TODAY Sports in advance of the announcement at the swanky hotel and resort 50 miles west of Syracuse.
The lawsuit says ESPN doubted the validity of Bobby Davis, one of the men who accused Bernie Fine of molesting him as a child and into adulthood, for nine years, then aired its story after questionable claims of Davis' stepbrother, Mike Lang, to justify broadcasting the story in November.
"The suit is without merit and we stand by our reporting," ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said.
According to the suit, Laurie Fine says ESPN falsely accused her of:
? Creating a space in which children could be sexually molested in secret;
? Witnessing her husband sexually molest children, but not doing anything to
stop it;
? Knowingly permitting the sexual molestation of children in her home;
? Telling (former ballboy) Robert Davis that she knew her husband was sexually molesting him;
? Having adulterous sex with Robert Davis while he was still in high school;
? Betraying Robert Davis' trust by not protecting him from sexual molestation;
? Having adulterous and dysfunctional sexual relationships with Syracuse basketball team players over the course of many years.
USA TODAY Sports asked Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer practicing in Washington, D.C., who is also a former deputy attorney general under President Reagan, about the merits of this case.
"The general issue that arises in these cases, if he or she is a public figure, is you have to prove actual malice," Fein said. "Was (what ESPN produced) offered as opinion or fact?
"The critical issue at this stage of the litigation are the words ESPN used in covering this event and describing her involvement. Were they offered as fact or were they merely pure speculation and conjecture. Unless you can ascribe it as something presented as fact that can be proven right or wrong, it would be protected and shielded under the 1st amendment."
Allegations against Bernie Fine broke in November at the height of the scandal at Penn State, where former football assistant Jerry Sandusky is accused of molesting young boys. Bernie Fine was fired in the wake of the allegations. He has denied wrongdoing.
On Nov. 27, ESPN's Outside The Lines played an audio tape of a phone conversation that Davis alleged took place between Davis and Laurie Fine in 2002. In the conversation, Laurie Fine says she knew about Davis and Fine's sexual relationship.
"I know everything that went on, you know," Laurie Fine said on the tape ESPN played. "I know everything that went on with him ? Bernie has issues, maybe that he's not aware of, but he has issues.
"Bernie is also in denial. I think that he did the things he did, but he's somehow through his own mental telepathy has erased them out of his mind."
Laurie Fine's lawsuit alleges that ESPN "distorted the tape's sound quality and voices, and otherwise spliced and/or deleted portions of the recording that were inconsistent with and totally contradicted the storyline of their coverage."
The suit repeatedly refers to ESPN's audio recording as "the admittedly doctored, substantially inaudible, and entirely speculative tape."
In the suit, Laurie Fine says that Davis called her when he was desperate for money and sympathy, and he "would bring up false accusations against Bernie. ? Laurie would patiently suffer Davis' vilification of her husband with the hope that Davis would eventually outgrow the lies and his dependency upon her family for financial support. Laurie occasionally tested Davis' various stories by asking him specific questions?questions intended to see just how far Davis was willing to let his lies go. Laurie often resorted to sarcasm during these conversations, as it was the only way she could get through Davis' stories without "going off" on him."
In reponse to Davis' claims that Laurie Fine had sex with him while he was in high school and that she had also had sexual relations with members of the Syracuse basketball team, the suit alleges that the Plaintiff "did not engage in any of the unsavory and disreputable acts for which she stands accused by Defendants in their coverage of Davis' accusations."
The suit asks for compensatory and punitive damages to be determined by a jury. Laurie Fine's lawyer said he has been in "discussions," not "negotiations," with ESPN about resolving the case. The lawsuit could be filed in federal court in Syracuse in the coming days, but Fisher wouldn't put a timetable on it.
"We'd like to see them apologize and (reporter Mark Schwarz) retract false statements," Fisher said. He added that he would like to see Schwarz punished for "this reprehensible journalism."
Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomSports-TopStories/~3/F7znNK2M4TI/1
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