Fine allegations | On the record

The audio recording of an interview between two Syracuse police detectives and Zach Tomaselli, the third accuser of Bernie Fine, reveals Tomaselli initially claimed he was molested on a road trip to attend a Syracuse basketball game at Connecticut, not a game at Pittsburgh.

Tomaselli later changed his story upon learning Connecticut and Syracuse did not play during the 2001-02 season. He has since identified Syracuse's game at Pittsburgh on Jan. 22, 2002, as the game that he attended.

The portion of the recording in which Tomaselli discussed Connecticut with the detectives was played for The Daily Orange on Jan. 27 with the approval of Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick told The Post-Standard in an article published Jan. 19 that Tomaselli changed his story from Connecticut to Pittsburgh. When Tomaselli called Fitzpatrick a liar to the media, Fitzpatrick offered to play that portion of the recording for The Daily Orange.

The detectives' interview with Tomaselli was conducted in Albany on Nov. 23 by Clark Farry and Raul Santana of the Syracuse Police Department.

"We also want to talk about this UConn thing and how we made sense of that," Farry said nearly 48 minutes into the interview. "Because you'll have to explain that for us."

"Before I forget, and then I promise I'll shut up," Farry said shortly thereafter, "when you first spoke with Raul (Santana) the other day, you mentioned UConn. And I think you began to figure out it wasn't UConn. Explain that to us again."

Tomaselli launched into an explanation in which he said he told Marcus Spaulding, who he called his best friend from high school, about going on the road trip. He said he discussed the trip with Spaulding, 23, of Copenhagen, N.Y., back in high school.

When the news about Fine first broke in November, Tomaselli said he went through the full story with Spaulding. It was during this conversation, Tomaselli said on the recording, that Spaulding indicated remembering the game was against Pittsburgh and not Connecticut.

"He remembers about a trip with Syracuse. He had remembered it as Pittsburgh," Tomaselli said on the recording.

He then said Spaulding asked him whether it was a Pittsburgh game that Tomaselli actually attended.

"And I said, ‘Well, yeah,'" Tomaselli said on the recording. "I definitely switched my story really fast because I wasn't sure. I knew it was a rivalry game. And I wasn't familiar, and I'm still not 100 percent familiar with their exact rivals, but I knew it was a big, big game."

Spaulding could not be reached for comment, but he told The Post-Standard in an article published Jan. 20 he has no memory of Tomaselli attending the game or telling him about it in high school.

Tomaselli told The Daily Orange on Jan. 27 he thinks Spaulding is denying he remembers the aforementioned events because he "doesn't want to be out in the media." He reiterated that idea Monday.

After explaining to Farry and Santana how the story changed from a game against Connecticut to a game against Pittsburgh, Farry attempts to clarify.

"So initially you thought, but you're not positive, but you thought it was UConn, right?" Farry asked.

"Yeah," Tomaselli responded on the recording. "It's not that I wasn't positive it was UConn. My mind really did think it was."

A request to interview Farry and Santana for this story was denied. Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Tom Connellan said members of the police department are prohibited from commenting about an ongoing investigation.

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In the interview Jan. 27, The Daily Orange asked Tomaselli to whom he ever mentioned attending a game between Syracuse and Connecticut.

He said with confidence he never mentioned UConn to either Farry or Santana.

"By the time it became anything formal, even over the phone with Farry or Santana, it was always Pittsburgh," Tomaselli said.