A grand jury released a report last week that concluded bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up child abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years.
The report, which covered six of the state’s eight dioceses, found more than 1,000 identified victims and said there were likely thousands more.
Included was a catalog of horrific instances of abuse – a priest who raped a young girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils out, a victim tied up and whipped with leather straps by a priest, a boy who was forced to say confession to a priest who sexually abused him.
What would be the punishment if these offenses were reported in New York?
In Pennsylvania, no new criminal charges or civil lawsuits are likely because the statute of limitations has expired on charges detailed by the grand jury.
And Pennsylvania’s civil statute of limitations is generous by New York standards. It gives victims 12 years after they turn 18 to file suit; in New York, the window is just five years long – until a victim is 23.
The New York state Assembly has approved legislation six times in the past 10 years that would extend the statute of limitations to age 50 in civil cases, and to age 28 in criminal cases.
It would also establish a one-year window in which anyone would be permitted to bring a lawsuit, even if the statute of limitations had expired.
The legislation passed the Assembly in a 124-9 vote this year and is backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and by 90 percent of state voters.
But Republicans in the state Senate have not even allowed the legislation to come to a vote. Not once.
Republican state Sen. Catherine Young said in a letter to the editor published in Blank Slate Media last week that she had recently sponsored a plan superior to that offered by the Assembly Democrats, which included the elimination of the criminal statute of limitations.
Before reviewing Young’s bill, we offer two points.
Young has represented New York’s 57th Senate District since May 2005, the period of time the Senate has refused to bring the Child Victims Act to a vote six times.
The second is that Young’s bill, the Child Victims’ Reconciliation and Compensation Fund proposal, was also not brought to a vote in the Senate this year.
This seems to support those who believe the proposed legislation was filed only for political reasons by Republicans fearing the loss of state Senate control and their jobs.
Now as for Young’s bill.
We agree with Young that the Legislature should eliminate the criminal statute of limitations.
But the problem with the legislation is how it would handle civil cases and who would pay for wrongdoing.
Young’s bill calls for no change to the age 23 limit on filing civil suits.
She actually explains what is wrong with the age limit in her letter when she points out that most victims are “unable to confront their abuse until their 40s.”
But instead of supporting an increase in the age by which a victim can file a lawsuit she proposes the creation of a new system of law outside the civil court system – a compensation fund.
The fund would be controlled by an administrator selected by the comptroller with the approval of the state Assembly and state Senate who would review abuse claims behind closed doors.
Why a separate legal system for accused sexual abusers, the people and institutions who are alleged to have looked the other way and those alleged to have covered it up afterward?
The answer is who would pay for any wrongdoing.
Not the sexual abusers or the people and institutions who looked the other way or those that covered it up afterward.
No, they would be given a free pass. Instead, taxpayers would foot the bill.
Young responded angrily to our claim that the people paying would be the public, pointing out that the fund would be financed by taking $300 million from an asset forfeiture fund controlled by the Manhattan district attorney’s office that has to go to criminal justice initiatives.
This is a distinction without a difference designed to hide the cost to the public.
The fund controlled by the Manhattan DA’s office is public money intended for public uses. It is public money no matter what Young and other GOP state senators claim.
The use of this fund also undermines one of the central purposes of a court system – to punish wrongdoers and deter future wrongdoing.
This may satisfy opponents of the Child Victims Act such as the Catholic Church, Orthodox Jewish groups, the Boy Scouts of America and insurance companies, who have cited concerns about the potential cost of lawsuits. But it shouldn’t satisfy state voters.
Advocate Marci Hamilton, a co-founder of New Yorkers Against Hidden Predators, called the bill “an attempt to pay off the victims and shield the institutions, who would get to keep their secrets.”
We agree.
We also agree with the grand jury in Pennsylvania, which strongly recommended extending the statute of limitations in civil and criminal cases and a one-year look back.
State Senate Republicans should stop the games and start putting the concerns of child sexual abuse victims first. Approve the Child Victims Act. Now.
