Window Opens for Hundreds of Lawsuits by Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors

The Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, schools and hospitals, the late financier Jeffrey Epstein are some of the targets named in a flurry of sex abuse lawsuits filed Wednesday in New York as the state began accepting cases once blocked by the statute of limitations.

According to the state's Office of Court Administration, 427 lawsuits were filed as plaintiffs rushed to take advantage of the one-year litigation window, created by state lawmakers this year to give people who say they were victims a second chance to sue over abuse that, in many cases, happened decades ago.

The Child Victims Act, approved earlier this year by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the legislature, lets victims bring criminal charges against an alleged abuser up until they reach the age of 28. And they can initiate civil action until they are 55 years old. The one year window allows thousands of survivors, who were barred from court action in the past, to bring civil lawsuits from August 14, 2019 until August 13 2020.

Those suing Wednesday include Jennifer Araoz, a woman who claims she was raped by Epstein as a teenager in 2002. She filed against Epstein's estate and three of his associates. Similar lawsuits from other women who say they were abused by Epstein are expected.

Other suits filed Wednesday include one from 45 former Rockefeller University Hospital patients who say a renowned endocrinologist molested hundreds of boys over more than three decades. Some people filed lawsuits against their parents or childhood neighbors. Hospitals were sued, and so were school districts by former students.

Susanne Robertson and her two sisters were orphans at St. Colman’s home in Watervliet, in upstate New York, where she says they were routinely abused by the nuns and other staff there. When one of the sisters reported the sexual abuse to a nun at the home, she was transferred to an orphanage for mentally disabled children.

“The nuns were selective in who they targeted,” Robertson said. “They kept trying to break my spirit. It dint’ work then and it won’t work now.”

Jack Cesare says he was abused by the janitor, Eugene Hubert, at the St Teresa of Avila school in Albany, along with another man, Stephen Erickson, who recently died before he could file a lawsuit. Erickson’s widow is bringing the court action.

“What happened to me changed my life and put me on a path of sexual destruction,” said Cesare, his voice breaking. “And internal hell. But the end of the cover-up stops here.”

Cesare, Robertson and her siblings, and others who say they are victims of childhood sexual abuse filed suit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, claiming that the diocese knew of the abuse and did nothing to stop it.

The survivors’ attorney Dan Ellis, of Herman Law firm, says his firm has compiled a list of 500 priests across New York who have been accused of sexual abuse.

“We’re hearing from 100’s of victims across the state,” Ellis said. “Who no longer have to suffer in silence.”

Ellis’s firm is one of several filing cases Wednesday against the church. He said the next step is to help his clients prove their cases in court. That will involve the victims telling their stories to a judge, and in some cases a jury, and will also include depositions from officials in the diocese. He said they hope to discover more evidence of sexual abuse that he believes has been covered up.

“We still think that the dioceses across the county are withholding files and complaints based on known perpetrators,” Ellis said. “We don’t think all the records are out there.”

The New York State Attorney General’s office announced over a year ago that it had begun an investigation of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. 

The Catholic Church lobbied against the Child Victims Act for several years, but earlier in 2019 dropped its opposition. And many dioceses now say they support the victims and won’t stand in the way of their lawsuits.  The Albany bishop, Edward Scharfenberger, released a video message.

“We support all survivors in the justice and healing that they seek,” Scharfenberger said. He added that victims should not be afraid to “speak truth to power."