Bernie Fine Accuser Drops Civil Suit Against Him A man who accused the former Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine of molesting him has withdrawn a civil suit against Fine after acknowledging that he lied and doctored e-mails in an attempt to bolster parts of his story. Jeff Anderson, a lawyer who has represented the reported victim Zach Tomaselli, said Tomaselli still maintains that Fine molested him. The United States attorney's office in the Northern District of New York is continuing a criminal investigation into Tomaselli's accusations, but Anderson said that Tomaselli's efforts to back up his assertions undermined the civil case. In a phone interview, Anderson said that Tomaselli had not recanted his story, "but because of practical reasons that have recently developed of Zach's making," it was in Tomaselli's interest to drop the suit. Anderson, who developed a national reputation representing victims in the Catholic church sexual abuse scandals, also said he would no longer represent Tomaselli. Tomaselli's admissions came after Fine's fourth accuser, Floyd VanHooser, admitted this week that his allegations that Fine molested him were lies. Two other reported victims - the former Syracuse ball boys Bobby Davis and Mike Lang - still say that Fine molested them. Syracuse fired Fine in November, soon after ESPN reported the allegations by Davis and Lang. Fine has maintained his innocence through his lawyers, who did not return a call for comment on the latest development. According to reports in The Daily Orange and The Post-Standard, Tomaselli doctored an e-mail to them so it would appear that the Syracuse police were referring to his father, Fred Tomaselli, as a "sick man" and a "liar." Zach Tomaselli also doctored an e-mail to try to show that he was at a game in Pittsburgh, where he claimed Fine molested him. Fred Tomaselli has publicly referred to his son as a liar. Zach Tomaselli said he doctored the e-mails for "support," telling The Daily Orange: "I felt like there was so much stuff that people didn't know. The police were telling me that they knew my father was lying, but there's no way for me to get that out. And that's the only thing I could think of. Tomaselli, who is awaiting sentencing in Maine after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a teenage boy, also told The Daily Orange and The Post-Standard that he would ask the Syracuse police to end the investigation of whether Fine molested him. That request most likely will have no bearing on the United States attorney's case. "I made a mistake," Tomaselli said. I made up a couple of lies, and it's really biting me now. The Onondaga County district attorney, William Fitzpatrick, who is no longer involved in the case, accused the Syracuse Police Department of not doing enough to verify the allegations by Tomaselli and VanHooser. Fitzpatrick said that the stories of Tomaselli and VanHooser were easy to refute. Fitzpatrick said he had files that "would indicate to anyone" that VanHooser was "a liar." He also said it took his office only a few hours to verify that Tomaselli was in school the days he claimed he traveled to Pittsburgh and was molested. Fitzpatrick called the Syracuse police investigations "incompetent" and said that Frank Fowler, the Syracuse police chief, tried to use the investigation to make him look bad. "He sees some cameras and national media and sees an opportunity in his mind to embarrass the district attorney's office," Fitzpatrick said. Now look what we're stuck with. The Syracuse police spokesman Tom Connellan declined comment, and Fowler has not discussed the case publicly in more than a month. John Duncan, the executive assistant United States attorney, said, "We have no comment on matters that are involved in an ongoing investigation."