Judge in Poly Prep Sexual Abuse Suit Wants a Settlement, and Gives Both Sides Lots of Time to

By Michael O'Keeffe
New York Daily News
September 14, 2012

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/judge-poly-prep-sexual-abuse-suit-a-settlement-sides-lots-time-work-article-1.1160175?localLinksEnabled=false

Phil Foglietta, the accused pedophile and former football coach at Poly Prep, died in 1998.

U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block, citing scheduling issues, said he won't hold a hearing until Feb. 11 to determine if the school covered up decades of abuse by Phil Foglietta, preventing the plaintiffs from filing a case before the statute of limitations expired.

The judge overseeing the Poly Prep sexual-abuse lawsuit urged lawyers for the school and the men who say they were molested by football coach Phil Foglietta to reach a settlement at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court on Friday — and then gave them plenty of time to do so.

U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block, citing scheduling issues, said he won't hold a hearing until Feb. 11 to determine if the school covered up decades of abuse by Foglietta, preventing the plaintiffs from filing a case before the statute of limitations expired. New York state law requires survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file a case by the time they are 23 years old.

Block ruled last month that portions of the explosive lawsuit filed on behalf of 10 students and two day campers can proceed. Lawyers for the elite private school, which charges up to $36,000 a year for tuition, had argued that the case should be dismissed because the statute of limitations had long expired. But Block's 40-page ruling said that argument may not be relevant because administrators may have lied about when they first learned that Foglietta, who died in 1998, was a sexual predator.

Attorneys for Poly Prep asked Block to reconsider his decision in papers filed on Tuesday, saying that his ruling clashes with New York state law regarding the statute of limitations. Block said he would rule on the request soon.

Lawyers for the alleged victims have argued that Poly Prep has tried to defraud the court and the plaintiffs by refusing to testify honestly and provide requested documents. U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak, who slapped the school with sanctions last year for discarding documents in the case, ruled in June that there was evidence that supports the plaintiffs' accusation.

Pollak scheduled a hearing in July on the matter, but that hearing was canceled after Poly Prep appealed her decision. Block said he would not rule on the fraud allegation until after the statute of limitation issue is resolved.

"The focus has to be on going forward on the equitable estoppel issue," said Block, who gave the parties until Nov. 15 to wrap up discovery.

The lawsuit, which seeks $20 million for each victim, claims Poly Prep officials knew for decades that Foglietta was a sexual predator but put the school's reputation and fund-raising ahead of student safety. The suit says Poly Prep officials have covered up the abuse since 1966, when administrators threatened to expel a plaintiff named William Jackson, who complained that he had been molested by Foglietta.

The coverup, the plaintiffs' attorney Kevin Mulhearn has argued, not only allowed Foglietta to rape and assault students for more than 20 years, but it also prevented his clients from pursuing litigation against the school in a timely fashion.

"We're looking forward to our day in court, and we believe that additional discovery will further buttress our already strong allegations of fraud and misconduct," Mulhearn said.

A spokeswoman for the school declined comment.

Block's 40-page ruling said the plaintiffs must ultimately prove they did not file lawsuits against the elite private school before the statute of limitations expired because they were convinced school officials did not know that Foglietta was a sexual predator.

He said at Friday's hearing that the alleged victims face a number of "hurdles" before the case can proceed to trial.

Pollak ordered lawyers for the school and the alleged victims to attend a closed-door settlement conference after Block's hearing. It is not clear what progress, if any, was made during that meeting.

Foglietta, who established Poly Prep as a New York City football powerhouse, died in 1998.

Poly Prep officials have said that they did not learn about the abuse allegations until 1991, when alumnus David Hiltbrand contacted then-headmaster William M. Williams and told him that he had been abused by Foglietta in the 1960s. Mulhearn, however, has argued that administrators were aware that Foglietta was abusing students decades earlier.

The sexual abuse scandal has roiled the elite school in the decade after Hiltbrand went public with his allegations in 2002. One of the plaintiffs, Philip Smith, is the brother of Scott Smith, the chairman of Poly Prep's board of directors.