New York State Assembly Plans on Taking up Child-sex Abuse Victims Bill ‘next Week’ before Legislative Session Ends

By Kenneth Lovett
New York Daily News
June 9, 2016

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/assembly-plans-bill-abuse-victims-week-article-1.2667957

The state Assembly plans on taking up a bill dealing with child sex abuse victims next week. (JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

Despite criticism from those on both sides of the issue, the state Assembly still intends to take up a bill dealing with child sex abuse victims.

“The plan is still to do the bill next week,” Assembly Democratic spokesman Michael Whyland said Thursday. “Nothing has changed.”

Introduced Tuesday night, the bill designed to make it easier for victims to bring lawsuits was assailed by survivors for not going far enough while the Catholic Church opposes a provision that would allow for old cases to be revived.

Whyland said he doesn’t expect any changes to the Assembly bill unless a deal on the issue is reached with Gov. Cuomo and the state Senate.

“We’ll see how things progress,” he said.

Whyland defended the bill.

“It is a step forward and allows victims of sexual abuse to seek justice,” he said.

Under the legislation, the five-year statute of limitation on felony criminal child sex abuse cases would start at age 23, up from 18. For civil cases, a person would have until their 28th birthday to bring a lawsuit against a predator, up from the current 23.

The bill would also do away with a requirement that those abused in a public institution like a school must file a notice of intent to sue within 90 days of the incident. Instead, a person would have until their 28th birthday to bring cases regardless of whether the abuse occurred in a private or public institution.

And it includes a six-month window for people to revive cases barred under current law.

Advocates for reform say the statute of limitations should either be completely eliminated or extended far beyond what the Assembly is proposing.

“It’s a waste of time,” Gary Greenberg, an upstate investor and sexual abuse survivor, said of the expected Assembly vote. “They’re throwing us a crumb so they can say tell their constituents in an election year that they did something.”

Kathryn Robb, an advocate and child sex abuse survivor, said, “We appreciate the efforts of the Democratic caucus and Speaker (Carl) Heastie in making this first important step,” but branded the bill “a small step towards the long distance road to justice.”

Investor Gary Greenberg plans to put up and raise $100,000 to push for passage of the Child Victims Act. (JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

The church, meanwhile, opposes a window to revive old cases, fearing it could lead to a flood of lawsuits that could bankrupt it.

The Assembly has passed a version of the Child Victims Act four times, but not since 2008.

The Republican-run Senate, opposed to allowing old cases to be revived, has never taken a vote on such legislation and won’t begin with the Assembly bill.

“Your paper in particular has highlighted that the Assembly bill has run up against significant obstacles from the advocates who feel that it is completely inadequate, so that’s something that we are going to look at,” Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan told The News.