Very fine line we are walking here.
Especially with sexual abuse you don’t want to dismiss all the claims, because one guy admits to lying, but on the flip side it does lend doubt to some of the other stories.
Floyd VanHooser in a written letter says he made the entire story up.
In letters obtained by the Post-Standard, Floyd VanHooser, the prison inmate who accused Bernie Fine of sexually abusing him since 1969, has admitted to fabricating his story.
VanHooser is currently serving 16 years to life in prison for various burglary-related charges and claims that he made the allegations of sexual abuse because he was angry Fine did not pay for a lawyer to fight the charges. He believes his sentence would have been lighter had Fine helped. The first letter, addressed to no one in particular, begins “I am writing this of my own free will. I need to right a wrong.” VanHooser was interviewed from prison on Friday and when asked “if his statement to police was true, VanHooser said only parts were. ‘Some of it is and some of it isn’t,’ he said Friday. You’re going to tell everyone how sorry I am?'” The second letter, addressed to Fine himself, is an apology and notes “I believe if you had got a good lawyer for me I would have done better than 16 to life or as I see it 16 to death.”
The statue of limitations has passed on the majority of these claims, but since Fine was fired you want to make sure justice is served one way or another.