NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY KEVIN THOMAS MULHEARN SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, April 4, 2016
In recent weeks, the Daily News has been commendably focused on the compelling need to reform the New York statute of limitations for survivors of alleged childhood sexual abuse. New York has one of the most regressive laws on this issue in the entire United States; it bars child victims from seeking justice against predators unless they file a claim before they turn 23.
But, unfortunately, that’s just half the problem. At the very same time, judges have been interpreting the law in a way that’s protective of institutions that may have been involved in lengthy cover-ups of abuse.
Although typically, in cases involving fraud, the clock on a statute of limitations should not begin to run until the moment fraud is discovered or — upon reasonable diligence — would have been discovered, in sex abuse cover-up cases, New York courts have stuck to the hard-and-fast rule that if a victim is 23 or older, he or she is out of luck.
Given the shame associated with sexual abuse, it is already difficult for a victim to bring a case against an individual teacher, coach, priest or rabbi by age 23. It’s absolutely absurd to pretend that young adults by that age would have discovered what they needed to discover to credibly accuse an institution of facilitating a pattern of abuse against scores of children.
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