The newspaper interviewed Floyd VanHooser, a 56-year-old man currently serving 16 years to life for burglarizing houses in Central New York, on Wednesday in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. VanHooser said he lived with the former associate men’s basketball coach and his family on and off for nearly 40 years after both his parents died before he was 13.

VanHooser said his interactions with Fine began before Fine worked for Syracuse University and when Fine was a basketball coach in the Syracuse City School District. The abuse continued for nearly four decades, and the latest incident was this past summer, when VanHooser gave Fine oral sex in Fine’s office near Manley Field House in exchange for $300, VanHooser said in the article.

VanHooser said the sexual contact took place over four decades, and he told the Syracuse Police Department three separate times when Fine pressured him to perform oral sex and then gave him money. The incidents were in 1998, 2001 and 2011. The statute of limitations for VanHooser’s accusations of sexual abuse has also run out, according to the article.

The hint of a fourth accuser rose Nov. 29. when Robert Hoatson, an advocate for victims of sexual abuse, said that a woman had contacted him saying her family member had been affected by Fine. No fourth accuser came forward publicly following Hoatson’s statement.

In a press conference Dec.7, William Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, referred to a fourth accuser in the Fine case. Fitzpatrick did not disclose the name but said it was someone who was serving a life sentence.

Fitzpatrick also discredited the story of the fourth accuser and said there was no fourth victim.

VanHooser has been arrested dozens of times for felony crimes, according to the article. The Post-Standard also found that VanHooser and Fine have a previous connection in the public record. VanHooser’s address was listed as Fine’s home in a 1975 story about a drug case, according to the article. In 1999, when New York state filed against VanHooser for unpaid taxes, his listed address was also Fine’s home, according to the article.

medelane@syr.edu