'Child Victims Act' Talk ...

By Michael O'Keeffe
New York Daily News
November 26, 2012

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/2012/11/child-victims-act-talk-will-be-held-before-screening-of-alex-gibney-documentary-on-cat

'Child Victims Act' talk will be held before screening of Alex Gibney documentary on Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal

An attorney who represents a man who says he was abused by Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky will urge New York state lawmakers to reform the statute of limitations on sex-abuse laws in an unusual setting this week: a movie theater

Marci Hamilton, a Cardozo School of law professor, will join Assemblywoman Margaret Markey at Manhattan’s Film Forum on Wednesday afternoon to push for passage of Markey’s “Child Victims Act.”

Hamilton and Markey will talk about the bill before a showing of director Alex Gibney’s critically acclaimed new documentary about the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God.”

Markey’s bill would extend the civil and criminal limitations for sexual abuse and give previous victims a window to bring civil suits against sexual offenders.

Former Christ the King basketball coach Bob Oliva pleaded guilty to sexual abuse charges in Boston last month, acknowledging that he had molested a 14-year-old boy during a 1976 trip to Massachusetts. Oliva could not be prosecuted in New York because of statute of limitations issues. Boston authorities were able to prosecute Oliva because the statute of limitations clock stops ticking in Massachusetts when a suspect leaves the state.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office investigated sex abuse allegations made against Ernest Lorch, the founder of the Riverside Church Hawks basketball program, but prosecutors did not file charges because of statute of limitations issues. A Massachusetts grand jury indicted Lorch on sex abuse charges last year for allegedly molesting a New York teenager in Amherst more than 30years ago. Lorch, who battled extradition, died earlier this year.