NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY KENNETH LOVETT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Saturday, April 9, 2016
ALBANY — Disgraced ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was all about pay to play — and sexually abused kids were the ones to pay the price.
Silver stopped pushing for a bill to aid victims of predators after the state Catholic Conference hired his former long-time aide as a lobbyist, says a controversial former lawyer who has taken on the Church.
John Aretakis, of upstate Troy, made the alarming charge in a scathing letter he sent to a judge who in May will sentence Silver on an unrelated federal corruption conviction.
“Mr. Silver met with and looked into the eyes of many victims of clergy sexual abuse, and he promised his continuing support. … As soon as money lined his pockets, or the pocket of his trusted and loyal allies, he dropped us,” he wrote.
Aretakis, who as a lawyer and victim’s advocate represented a host of clients who sued the Catholic Church over abuse cases, wrote that Silver had been a supporter of a bill to extend the age that an adult who was sexually abused as a kid could bring a case.
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