Dennis Duval, former Syracuse police chief.
SYRACUSE -- CNY Central reporters went to former Syracuse Police Chief Dennis Duval's home In Manlius Tuesday afternoon. Duval's wife says he wasn't home, and asked us not to come back. She would not offer another means of reaching the former Syracuse University All-American and NBA basketball player who retired from the Syracuse police force as chief in 2004 after a 27 year career.
(Watch Matt Mulcahy reporting immediately following his visit to Duval's home.)
Earlier Tuesday morning, current Police Chief Fowler released a lengthy statement acknowledging that Duval was Police Chief in 2002 at the time of Bobby Davis's phone call to police alleging that Bernie Fine had sexually abused him.
Following Chief Fowler's statement, Michael Benny interviewed the police chief. "It appears we could have done more with the case," Fowler said. There was no paper trail about the phone call. To find out what happened back in 2002, the current chief had to contact former Chief Dennis Duval, and speak with the man who took the phone call: Detective Doug Fox.
Chief Fowler can not say enough to defend Detective Fox's handling of the call, which came from Utah and lasted about five minutes. Chief Fowler said, "Detective Fox did absolutely nothing wrong."
Chief Fowler will not reveal the details of his conversation with former Chief Dennis Duval, except to say the two have spoken about how the department handled the case in 2002. Michael Benny asked Chief Fowler if it is common for phone calls alleging abuse to be brought to the attention of a police chief? Chief Fowler said it is not always common.
