The lawyer for a man who accused Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine of sexual abuse said Monday that a report into the university's investigation of the claim is ''a complete whitewash.''

Among other things, Bobby Davis' lawyer, Gloria Allred, said the report issued last week by a special committee failed to criticize that 2005 university probe as biased because it was conducted by the university's longtime law firm.

Allred also said the conclusion that there was no attempt to cover up the allegations doesn't ''pass the laugh test.''

Davis, now 41, claims Fine molested him beginning when he was around 12. He took the allegations to the university in 2005, and an investigation by the school's law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King, found the claims couldn't be substantiated. Allred said that determination missed the point.

''The issue should not have been whether or not the molestations were substantiated but rather whether or not they occurred,'' she said. ''Few cases of childhood sexual abuse can be `substantiated' because by their very nature these events occur in private under circumstances where there cannot be substantiation, often because the victims are afraid or ashamed to speak out until years after the fact.''

Fine was fired in November after the allegations were made public. The allegations by Davis and his stepbrother, Michael Lang, happened too long ago to be investigated by law enforcement, but the claims of a third man are being investigated by the U.S. attorney's office. Fine has not been charged and denies the accusations.

A special committee of the university's board of trustees hired lawyers from the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison firm to assess how the 2005 claims were investigated. In that report, the lawyers found:

- The investigation didn't talk to enough witnesses or failed to interview witnesses thoroughly.