Assembly Majority Leader Morelle Stands in the Way of Protecting Children from Sexually Abusive Predators

By Kevin T. Mulhearn
New York Daily News
May 20, 2016

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/assemblyman-moore-stands-protecting-kids-predators-article-1.2644446

Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle wrongly assumes that individuals accused of molesting children will be denied due process if the statute of limitations law is reformed. (JOE MARINO/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle has expressed his reservations about supporting legislation that would reform the New York statute of limitations for sexual abuse survivors.

While I appreciate Mr. Morelle's candor in addressing this hot-button issue, as an attorney on the front lines of this issue for more than a decade, I can state with confidence that his opposition is based on misconceptions, half-truths, and false suppositions.

Mr. Morelle raises the holy grail legal issue of due process. But he wrongly assumes that individuals accused of molesting children and institutions accused of facilitating their employees' sexual assaults of children will be denied due process if the statute of limitations law is reformed. In fact, right now in New York State there are scores of men and women whose childhood innocence was stolen from them who, without a doubt, have already been denied due process, a fair procedure to give them their days in court on claims against those who grievously hurt them, by the existing law as it is written (by the legislators) and interpreted (by the judges).

The best example of this is the Yeshiva University case, where two venerable federal courts took the law into their own hands and — in direct opposition to the arguments made and investigation conducted by Yeshiva University itself — manufactured from thin air a preposterous judicial finding that 34 plaintiffs who sued Yeshiva University in 2013 after learning that the school's top administrators had engaged in a multi-decade cover-up of sexual abuse at Yeshiva University High School in Manhattan, would have discovered Yeshiva's own misconduct had they reported their abuse to school administrators before they turned 21.

Lawyer Kevin Mulhearn calls out Morelle’s opposition as based on misconceptions, half-truths and false suppositions. (HOWARD SIMMONS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

The Assembly Majority Leader also bemoans the distinction between public institutions, against whom an injured person must file a notice of claim within 90 days of his injury, and private institutions, which have no such notice of claim requirements. Although this issue is expressly addressed by the bill proposed by Democratic Sen. Brad Hoylman, which proposes the abolition of the notice of claim mandate against public institutions in the sex abuse context, Mr. Morelle misses the point: the extant law denies justice to children who are sexually assaulted, and, most egregiously, provides a perverse incentive to both private and public institutions to cover up sex abuse allegations against predatory employees, retain these employees on staff, and hope that the draconian statute of limitations clock runs out to provide these craven institutions (schools, religious institutions, or youth groups) with a get-out-of-jail-free windfall.

This is not hyperbole.

The above playbook has been used by institutions in charge of educating and protecting children to escape any accountability for facilitating sexual abuse time and time again. Mr. Morelle suggests that we should be concerned about whether there is a "level playing field" for those abused in public institutions and private institutions. But his priorities on this issue are warped. We should be worried about making sure that we can protect as many children as possible, whether public or private school students, from the scourge of predators, and especially known predators.

Sen. Brad Hoylman’s legislation proposes the abolition of the notice of claim mandate against public institutions in the sex abuse context. (MIKE GROLL/AP)

Finally, Mr. Morelle states that many in the Assembly (and no doubt many in the Senate) are "troubled" about the one-year window look-back provision that is central to the statute of limitations reform effort. He and other opponents of statute of limitations reform fail to grasp that the existing law, which requires an abused child to stake his legal claim against his abuser by the time he turns 23, and against an institution that facilitated his abuse by the time he turns 21, ignores entirely the emotional hell unleashed on innocent children forced to endure the unspeakable. The law as it now exists denies justice to those who deserve it the most. SOL reform must be a legislative priority.

Kevin T. Mulhearn is a New York attorney who specializes in sex abuse cover-up cases. He recently published “Ghosts of October: Reflections on Life, Death and Baseball,” which discusses some of his experiences and insights from the Poly Prep and Yeshiva University cases.