JAMAICA (NY)
Queens Daily Eagle
August 28, 2019
By Victoria Merlino
Two law firms say they are suing the Boy Scouts of America, the New York Archdiocese and the Diocese of Brooklyn over “secret files” that they claim would reveal “decades worth of evidence” about alleged child sex abusers.
Marsh Law Firm PLLC and Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC say they will represent 550 people who claim they were abused by Catholic Church and Boy Scout leaders.
The attorneys say the lawsuits and formal discovery requests will uncover what they call the Catholic Church’s “secret files” and the Boy Scouts’ “ineligible volunteer files,” including information on each of the alleged perpetrators and on each allegation of sexual abuse.
The lawsuits are made possible by the one-year “lookback” window opened by the Child Victims Act. The landmark law’s lookback period enables survivors of child sexual abuse to sue their abusers or the institutions that enabled them, regardless of when the crime was committed.
On the first day of the CVA, more than 400 lawsuits were filed statewide, including six in Queens. One lawyer told the Eagle that he was filing 66 lawsuits against the Diocese of Brooklyn, which also serves Queens.
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