Victims will rally to urge New York State lawmakers to approve child abuse law that has been long delayed and rejected

By Larry Mcshane
New York Daily News
May 02, 2016

http://goo.gl/qmvqnU

Childhood sex assault victim Mark Taylor plans to join the two-day rally in Albany to push cowardly pols to take action.

State Sen. Brad Hoylman (c.) is a co-sponsor of the Child Victims Act.

John Gerrard, victim of sexual abuse when he was a child.		Photo of abuse victim Mike DeSantis when he was a fourth-grader.

John Gerrard, victim of sexual abuse when he was a child.

Assemblywoman Margaret Markey is also sponsoring the Child Victims Act.

New York's child sex abuse victims — silenced for decades by state law — will shout their message with a single voice this week to Albany politicians: Do something this time!

“I don’t understand why anybody wouldn’t pass this law,” said Mark Taylor, a victim who plans to join those lobbying for the Child Victims Act. “It’s a law that affects people. There’s no money coming out of the taxpayer’s pockets. Why not pass a bill that protects people?”

Proponents of the long-delayed, oft-rejected bill sponsored by Queens Assemblywoman Margaret Markey and Manhattan state Sen. Brad Hoylman are hopeful the bill will finally become a law. The pair will lead a two-day effort to convince state politicians that the time has come for its passage.

Supporters and victims like Taylor, 50, will arrive Tuesday for the two-day effort.

Taylor was sodomized by his Bronx high school principal, and still suffers from anxiety attacks and posttraumatic stress disorder. His $10 million lawsuit was derailed by state law.

But like many child victims, current statute of limitations law took away Taylor’s chance to face his tormentor in court — in his case, even after wearing a wire that captured his attacker’s confession.

This year’s campaign will include a screening of the Oscar-winning Best Picture “Spotlight,” about The Boston Globe’s exposure of the Catholic Church’s coverup of sexual abuse by its priests. Several sexual abuse survivors — including speed-skating champion Bridie Farrell, filmmaker Chris Gavagan and former music industry executive Ronald Savage — will talk about their experiences and explain why they support the bill’s passage.

Victim advocates and sex abuse experts, including Cardozo Law School Prof. Marci Hamilton and New York lawyer Kevin Mulhearn, will also speak in favor of the legislation.

“It’s unbelievable to me that this will be the sixth year I have been doing this,” said victim Michael DeSantis. “To me, it’s simple. . . . All I am asking for is a chance, a chance for my voice to finally be heard.”

The legislation was first introduced by Markey in 2006, but has repeatedly fallen short — most often blocked by the state Senate.

If approved, it would eliminate New York’s civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse crimes and open a one-year legal “window” for older victims to bring their cases. Under current law, victims abused as children have until their 23rd birthday to seek criminal or civil penalties.

The Daily News has written about many child victims, including Savage, who was just a kid when he says hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa molested him in 1980. The series began following the arrest in March of Cesar Gonzales-Mugaburu, 59, a Long Island foster dad accused of molesting kids in his care.

Among the most recent addition to those supporting the reform legislation is John Gerrard, an heroic ex-FDNY member who went public only last month with his tale of abuse by his Catholic high school principal.

In the same Facebook post about his ordeal, Gerrard asked his friends to back the legislation if and when it comes up for a vote this year. “I’m not saying I’m the poster child for this law,” said Gerrard. “But the story to tell here is that I’m no longer a victim, I’m a survivor.

“There’s no shame in my game. I will talk to anyone at any time . . . for all the people who have neither the willingness or ability to step forward.”

Gerrard was a St. Francis Prep senior in 1977 when the school principal allegedly slipped him a drugged drink during a boozy night out and then raped him.

Like many victims, Gerrard was too upset and humiliated to say anything at the time — a typical response that often gives New York predators a pass on prosecution. His molester was never charged criminally or civilly, and Gerrard believes he went on to molest other youths.

Jack Cesare, 51, recounted his rape by a janitor at a Catholic grammar school in Albany. He stresses the importance of making predators liable for criminal and civil penalties regardless of the passing years.

“Criminally, you have to get them off the street,” said Cesare. “Pedophiles don’t rape one child and stop. They used the statute of limitations to get away with it.”

Opponents of the legislatures in the past include the Catholic Conference and Agudath Yisroel of America, with the former complaining the bill singled out private schools while giving public schools a pass. The new version eliminates the existing requirement of just 90 days’ notice to file one’s intent to sue a public school. And this time, the bill has widespread support from Jewish groups: More than 130 Jewish supporters of the bill will head to Albany to help the cause.

For DeSantis, first molested as a child, the new law would give him a voice taken away by the priests who sexually abused him. He didn’t recall much of what happened until after he turned 33. “All I ask for is my day in court,” said DeSantis. “I believe as Americans, we are promised that. I’m just so angry and hurt by being abused once again — this time, emotional abuse by my own state.”