New York state’s highest court will decide whether Jim Boeheim’s statements that two former Syracuse ball boys were liars trying to get money are opinions or defamatory comments.

The former ball boys, Mike Lang and Bobby Davis, originally filed their slander lawsuit against Boeheim and Syracuse University in December 2011. That happened shortly after the Syracuse head men’s basketball coach made those comments to the media.

Lang and Davis allege that Bernie Fine, a former associate head men’s basketball coach, sexually abused them during the 1980s and ‘90s. SU fired Fine on Nov. 27, 2011. He has denied all wrongdoing and wasn’t charged after an almost yearlong federal investigation.

A person in the clerk’s office at the New York State Court of Appeals, who declined to give her name, said she wasn’t sure when oral arguments for the case would happen. But, she said, they wouldn’t be before the court’s April and May session.

Boeheim and SU have until Jan. 23 to file briefs. Lang and Davis have until Feb. 7 to send a reply, according to the court docket.

In May 2012, Onondaga County Supreme Court Justice Brian DeJoseph threw out the lawsuit. DeJoseph ruled Boeheim’s statements were opinions protected under free speech. On Oct. 4, an intermediate state appellate court in Rochester, N.Y., upheld the decision to toss the suit, 3-2.

The Court of Appeals took the case following that October appellate court decision.

Mariann Wang, the attorney for Lang and Davis, didn’t return two phone calls Wednesday.

Helen Cantwell and Timothy Murphy, the lawyers for SU and Boeheim, respectively, also didn’t return two calls.

Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs at SU, declined to comment.

Published on January 16, 2014 at 2:34 am

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum