A judge dismissed Zach Tomaselli’s order of protection against Syracuse University’s former associate men’s basketball coach Bernie Fine on Wednesday before hearing any evidence.

Tomaselli, of Lewiston, Maine, obtained a temporary order of protection from Fine on Feb. 6, claiming Fine repeatedly called him on both his home phone and cellphone in attempts to intimidate him.

The order of protection was dismissed by a Lewiston district court judge with prejudice, meaning the issue cannot be brought back to court, according to an article in Wednesday’s The Post-Standard.

The threshold to obtain an order of protection is low, so a judge issued the temporary order of protection without requiring Tomaselli to submit any evidence of harassment, according to the article. The protection order was dropped, however, before any evidence was heard.

Tomaselli told The Daily Orange that Lenny Sharon, Fine’s attorney, said he and Tomaselli could come to a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ in which Fine would no longer contact him as long as the order of protection was dropped.

‘That was something I was definitely willing to agree to because it was just gonna be such a hassle,’ Tomaselli said.

Sharon told The Post-Standard that Fine denied Tomaselli’s claims of harassment, but he assured that Fine will not contact Tomaselli in the future.

Investigators are currently looking into Tomaselli’s allegation that Fine molested him in 2002 in a Pittsburgh hotel room when Tomaselli was 13 years old.

Fine, who was fired from the university Nov. 27, has denied the allegations and has not been charged.

—Staff Writer Michael Cohen contributed reporting to this article

meltagou@syr.edu

Published on February 29, 2012 at 12:00 pm