Election Day in Egypt; Third Accuser Comes Forth in Syracuse Child Sex Abuse Scandal
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: His wife knew everything. I'm Alina Cho. Syracuse firing coach Bernie Fine after a new explosive tape surfaces. And now, a third accuser is saying Fine molested him when he was a boy.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: It's election day in Egypt. I'm Christine Romans. With fresh blood in the streets of Tahrir Square, Egyptians are heading to the polls. Many of them are voting for the first time in their lives -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.</s>CHO: Good morning, everybody. It's Monday, November 28. Carol and Ali are of today. I'm Alina Cho, along with Christine Romans -- just back from vacation.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>CHO: Welcome back.</s>ROMANS: Good morning.</s>CHO: Nice to see you. But, first, time is running out for more Wall Street protesters. You're looking live now at the scene in Los Angeles there. Occupy protesters were warned they would be arrested if they were still on the streets after 4:30 a.m. West Coast time about half an hour ago. So far, it's been mostly a peaceful standoff with police. You can see one of the affiliate reporters there in front of the camera, certainly a top story out there. But earlier, we had been reporting that police were trying to get those protesters to fold up their tents and move out. What happened instead was that more protesters moved in. So, we are watching this story very, very closely throughout the morning.</s>ROMANS: All right. Also developing this morning, Syracuse University associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine has been fired -- this after explosive allegations of sexually abusing two former ball boys. After the firing, the head coach there, who had earlier defended Fine, he issued this statement. He said, "The allegations that have come forth today are disturbing and deeply troubling. I am personally very shocked because I have never witnessed any of the activities that have been alleged. I believe the university took the appropriate step tonight. What is most important is that this matter be fully investigated, and that anyone with information be supported to come forward so that the truth can be found." And he went on to say, "I deeply regret any statements I made that might have inhibited that from happening or been insensitive to victims of abuse." He had been very vocally in support of this assistant coach.</s>CHO: He had. And now, there's a bit of an about-face. ESPN meanwhile has released that secretly recorded conversation in 2002 between Fine's wife, Laurie Fine, and one of the coach's accusers, Bobby Davis. On it, potentially damning evidence that suggests that Laurie Fine not only knew about the abuse but allowed it to go on. We want to play some of that for you right now.</s>LAURIE FINE, BERNIE FINE'S WIFE: I know everything that went on, you know, I know everything that went on with him. Bernie has issues, maybe that he's not aware of, but he has issues. And you trusted somebody you shouldn't have trusted.</s>BOBBY DAVIS: Yes.</s>FINE: 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. You know what? Go to a place where there's gay boys, find yourself a gay boy. You know, get your rocks off, have it be over with.</s>DAVIS: Yes, but --</s>FINE: You know, he needs a, that male companionship that I can't give him, nor is he interested in me, and vice versa. Because I care about you, and I don't want to see you being treated that way --</s>DAVIS: Yes.</s>FINE: -- and, it's hard for, if it was another girl like I told you, it would be easy for me to step in because you know what you're up against, you're -- you're when it's someone, it's another guy, you can't compete with that.</s>CHO: Well, it's tough to hear. Laurie Fine told this local newspaper which declined to report the story at the time that Davis had recorded multiple conversations with her and may have edited them to appear more inflammatory. Bobby Davis and his stepbrother, Mike Lang, say Fine molested them back when they were ball boys at Syracuse. Davis also claims that Laurie Fine had a sexual relationship with him when he was 18 years old.</s>ROMANS: Today, affiliate WCSH spoke to a third accuser who has come forward against fine. The 23-year-old Zach Tomaselli says that Fine molested him in a Pittsburgh hotel when he was 13. It's the night before a Syracuse game against Pitt. Tomaselli -- he has his own troubles. He is facing charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Maine in 2009 and 2010. Tomaselli's own father calls him a liar and denies him ever meeting Fine or letting his son take a trip with the coach.</s>CHO: And when asked for a statement, Bernie Fine's attorneys released this, quote, "Mr. Fine will not comment on newspaper stories beyond his initial statement. Any comment from him would only invite and perpetuate ancient and suspect claims. Mr. Fine remains hopeful of a credible and expeditious review of the relevant issues by law enforcement authorities."</s>ROMANS: All right. And on campus this morning, many students are still having trouble believing all of this is happening at their school. CNN's Deb Feyerick is live in Syracuse with more. And, Deb, I mean, you've called and I think it's the perfect phrase. You've called this tape the game changer. There was a lot of skepticism about these claims before, and now the tables have turned.</s>DEB FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Absolutely. And, you know, a lot of people here at Syracuse University, they are trying to reconcile the sort of two sides of Bernie Fine. The man, the coach that they know as a respected part of the basketball program who helped recruit and develop many of the players here, and now, these new allegations, really by his wife, who describes him as having a problem. And they're really trying to come to terms with who is the real Bernie Fine: the man they have known for so many years, or the man they are now just getting a glimpse of. And we spoke to the sports editor of the school paper here. And here's what he said.</s>MICHAEL COHEN, SPORTS EDITOR OF "THE DAILY ORANGE": Every single person that we talk to, you know, multiple people in this house worked on the reporting, and every single one we talked to would defend coach Fine, and not a single one gave us even the slightest bit of an impression that these were true allegations. And now, this is coming from former players and coaches and people he worked so close with. So, it seemed at least like that the Syracuse basketball community was in defense of coach Fine. And then in the community itself, the Syracuse community, there were people who thought it was ridiculous. There were people who thought, you know, it wasn't true as well. I think a lot of people fed of what Jim Boeheim said, which was that Bobby Davis and Mike Lang are just looking for money in the fallout of Penn State, in the wake of Penn state. So, there was that aspect as well. But, you know, certainly I don't think anyone can say they suspected it from Bernie Fine, a guy who has been a dedicated member of the community and done so much for the basketball program. It was surprising if in fact it's true, which is still to be seen.</s>FEYERICK: And police have launched an extensive investigation. They did not investigate back in 2002 when the accuser made the initial claims. Part of it, the statute of limitations had run out. Also, they wanted the accuser to come in and speak with them face-to- face, because he really just placed a call from a university out in Utah. But the accuser, Bobby Davis, alleges that the abuse went on for decades in the Fine home, where he lived part of the time. And you think about this community, Christine. The homes of both the assistant coach and coach Jim Boeheim, they are across the street from one another. When we went to the home last night, there were a couple of lights that were on, but nobody answered our repeated knocks. The chancellor in making her decision to fire the coach last evening said that there was little more she could do in face of the new allegations. She also says that they never had the tape back in 2005 when they investigated charges of abuse. And then simply found them not credible because there was nobody to corroborate the story at the time. As I said, Syracuse police, they are investigating. Everyone is taking this very seriously now -- Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right. Deb Feyerick in Syracuse -- thanks, Deb.</s>CHO: Well, Egypt is at a crossroads this morning. It's election day there. And with fresh blood being spilled in violent protests in Cairo, people are still heading to the polls. Many of them voting for the first time in their lives. Some 50 million people in Egypt are eligible. Our Ivan Watson is live for us in Cairo. And, Ivan, the polls have been open now for about seven hours. What does it look like there?</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The polls are still pretty crowded, Alina. Good morning to you. This line goes back -- I mean, there are hundreds of people waiting, perhaps hours for their chance to cast their ballot. And you know what? Everybody I have talked to today has told me the same thing. This is the first time they have ever voted in an election. Even though Egypt did have presidential and parliamentary elections under the former president, Hosni Mubarak -- pretty much everyone I talked to said the elections were rigged in favor of the president's ruling party. And now we feel like we have a choice. Some of these very people that are telling me this, but they are a little shy about speaking in front of the camera in English. And certainly there is no shortage of choices here. The ballot has in some cases more than 100 candidates and political parties that they can choose from. The election season here is going to go on for months. This is for the lower house of parliament. Voting today is going to go on for two days, Alina. But it's only 1/3 of the country. Next month, there's going to be another round of elections in another 1/3 of the country, and then the month after, another 1/3 of the country. And they won't actually get the results until January. So people are going to get very used to elections in this country if all goes according to plan -- Alina.</s>CHO: Ivan, I'm curious whether the people have you spoken to feel as though the elections are going to make any difference.</s>WATSON: It's a good question. Take a listen to what one voter had to say to us right now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It will not change in one month or a year or in five years. It will take a long time to change from one system to the other. We have been going with this system for the past 30 years, and it's not like a button we push to change everything. People's mentality has to change, everything. The more population, the way they think, the way education, everything. It's just the whole system that has to change.</s>WATSON: There you go, Alina. Now, if it's noisy here, it's because there's a campaign truck here blaring campaign slogans right outside the polling station. We have been informed by authorities that campaigning during the voting is illegal, but that doesn't seem to be stopping the political parties here. Back to you.</s>CHO: All right. Ivan Watson live for us in Cairo, on a very important election day in Egypt. Ivan, thank you.</s>ROMANS: Meantime, three American college students are back home in the United States this morning, a few days after an Egyptian court ordered their release. They were accused of throwing Molotov cocktails during the uprising in Tahrir Square. Georgetown University student Derrik Sweeney denies they did anything wrong. He tells CNN Egyptian authorities fabricated the charges against them. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, Sweeney said he was so terrified he fainted when he was realized he was being detained.</s>DERRIK SWEENEY, DETAINED IN EGYPT: There were about 20 -- 15 to 20 military or police, excuse me, I believe Egyptian policemen with guns standing in front of us, and they had just pulled out a bunch of gasoline and bottles and put them before us. And I was -- I thought that there was a good chance that they might try to execute us or kill us perhaps that night. And I did not know whether anyone else would ever know about that.</s>ROMANS: Wow. Sweeney says that Egyptian authorities beat him. They threatened to shoot him. He says, though, he'd consider returning to Egypt some day, just not any time soon.</s>CHO: Yes. He might stay home for the semester first. Still ahead, she is a prominent Egyptian journalist based right here in New York City, and a good friend of our show. Mona Eltahawy is here name. She's here in our studios this morning, and she'll share a very personal story. Eltahawy says she was beaten, her bones broken, in both wrists, and sexual assaulted by policemen and thugs while covering the clashes in Tahrir Square. Her story is up next.</s>ROMANS: Also ahead, Occupy protesters in Los Angeles hold their ground overnight as police move in. These are live pictures right here. We've got all the new developments for you just ahead.</s>CHO: And a little later on in the show, actor Kal Penn will drop by our studios. He's of "Harold and Kumar" fame. He is once again focusing on his Hollywood career after a two-year stint as a staffer in the White House. So, was the real West Wing like the show "West Wing"? That was that like for him? He'll talk about it. It's 13 minutes after the hour.