Meet the Only GOP State Senate Hopeful Endorsed by Pac Fighting to Help Child Sex Abuse Victims
By Kenneth Lovett
This one was personal. The founder of a political action committee pushing for a law to help child sex abuse victims Tuesday returned to the city where he himself was attacked as a kid to endorse a Republican state Senate candidate who supports the bill. The candidate, Christopher Davis, called it unconscionable that his party in the Senate blocked a Democratic effort to bring a bill to the floor for a vote during the legislative session that concluded in June. "This is a moral issue," Davis said. "This is something that should not be partisan. It should not go down party lines. You murder the souls of these kids who are attacked and change the course of their lives." Davis, a 32-year-old married father of two young boys, is challenging veteran Sen. Neil Breslin, a lawyer who previously said he opposes a provision that would give adults who were sexually abused as kids but who can no longer sue under current law a one-year window to file civil lawsuits. He said memories tend to fade over time. "Here in New York State, as progressive as we are, we are backwards on this issue," Davis said. "This should have been done a long time ago." Davis is the only Republican being endorsed by Gary Greenberg's PAC, which has backed 12 Democratic candidates. This was the first time Greenberg held an endorsement event. The upstate investor called it particularly meaningful because Cohoes is where he was abused. Choking up at times, Greenberg talked angrily about having been attacked as a boy in 1966 by a worker while visiting his father at the now defunct Cohoes Memorial Hospital that was located not far from the park where the endorsement was made Tuesday. "I went in there a happy 7-year-old kid," he said. "What happened to me can happen to any of your children or anybody. I went to see my father in a hospital and my life changed in one second because I faced a brutal monster scumbag who took so much from me." Greenberg ripped Breslin for not being on board with a bill sponsored by his fellow Senate Dems that would eliminate the time limit that a child abuse victim can bring a case against their attacker. Under current law, a person has until their 23rd birthday.
The bill would also provide a one-year window to revive old cases and treat public and private institutions the same. Currently, someone abused at a school or other public entity must file a notice of intent to sue within 90 days of the incident occurring. "Either you're with the victims or you're with the predators — and that's what you are, with the predators," Greenberg said of Breslin. Breslin during the legislative session voted to allow the bill to come to the floor for a vote, though he wouldn't say whether he'd support it if it did. The Republicans blocked the bill from moving. "I look forward to working with advocates, victims and my colleagues in the Legislature on both sides of the aisle with the hope of finding a solution that is satisfactory to all parties," Breslin said Tuesday. Bringing up Gov. Cuomo's staff retreat on a boat on the Hudson River on Monday, Greenberg attacked the governor for not getting the issue done and called on him to bring the Legislature back into special session this year to address it. “I’m tired of Gov. Cuomo saying he’s for it,” Greenberg said. “He promised victims he would do it this year, it wasn’t done. He didn’t get the job done in six years. Where is he? Sailing down the Hudson.” “Bring them back and end the abuse,” he said. “What happened to me 50 years ago is happening today and we have to stop it. Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said, "We continue to believe that we can reach a resolution on this issue and help these victims get the justice they deserve." The endorsement event included not just Greenberg but several adult victims of child abuse, including Andrew Willis, of the Stop Abuse Campaign.
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