We knew that Zach Tomaselli was a liar when it came out that he had doctored e-mails and school records to make it appear he traveled to Syracuse. The prosecutor also said that he changed his story regarding when the alleged assault occurred, originally saying it was a game against Connecticut. So his credibility was shot.

However, we didn’t know the extent of it, whether there were half-truths anywhere or not. The answer is an emphatic “No.” Tomaselli, recently convicted for his own sexual assault, told the Syracuse Post-Standard today that it was all a lie.

“I’m ready to step forward and admit that I fabricated the Bernie Fine story,” Tomaselli told The Post-Standard in a recorded interview late Thursday. “It’s just become an amazing burden and I just can’t handle it anymore…One lie led to another.”

Part of his motivation? He hated Syracuse after they beat Kansas in the 2003 Title Game. Carmelo Anthony is to blame.

Tomaselli admits to being a drug addict, and bribed a fellow addict into claiming that they had a conversation about Fine two years ago by giving her Oxycontin. His lies were also driven by attention-seeking behavior, and he said he liked the sympathy and being on shows.

The statements provided to CNCY are more damning, especially as they relate to Bobby Davis and ESPN.

“It has become a burden of a lie and I am sick of it. Bobby Davis told me what to tell detectives and it pretty much took off from there. The evidence that supports me is just pure luck, not real evidence. I made the ENTIRE thing up. I have never met Bernie in my life.”

Tomaselli also claims that Bobby Davis told him details like what porn Bernie likes. However, Bobby Davis has already come out and said he asked all the questions, they had a brief conversation.

“It was very short,” Davis said of their conversations. “I asked him all the questions. I asked him to describe Bernie’s house, to describe the arena, to name the players on the team at that time. He kept changing his story with me. He couldn’t name the players, couldn’t describe the house. I said, ‘You just need to call the police.’ I called back and asked him if he called the police and he said, ‘no one answered.’ I said, “no one answered?’ “

It is still a bad look for ESPN and Bobby Davis. Tomaselli is a serial liar and we can’t take anything he says with any value, including his claims about Davis. Still, it was ESPN that put Davis in contact with Tomaselli to allow that contact that is now in question, after Tomaselli contacted Colin Cowherd, who passed it on to Mark Schwarz. That contact occurred before the release of the Laurie Fine audio that Sunday morning. If Davis had reservations about Tomaselli, did he tell Schwarz? Now, we are back to where we were a while ago, with no other witnesses other than Bobby Davis and Mike Lang.

[photo via Getty]