Gov. Cuomo Says New York Archdiocese’s Cash Settlements for Child Sex Abuse Victims Is Just First Step toward Justice

By Michael O’Keeffe
New York Daily News
October 8, 2016

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/cuomo-church-settlements-step-child-victims-article-1.2821574

Gov. Cuomo has promised to make the issue of statue of limitations in child abuse cases a priority in the 2017 legislative session after the Child Victims Act failed to pass. (TODD MAISEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

A New York Archdiocese plan offering cash settlements to sex abuse victims with no statue of limitations is a positive step — but hardly the last one, Gov. Cuomo says.

A Cuomo spokesman, one day after Timothy Cardinal Dolan unveiled his Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, said new laws were needed to provide compensation to all targets of sexual abuse.

“We must continue to work to ensure all victims have the opportunity to get the justice they deserve and this means a global legislative solution,” said gubernatorial spokesman Rich Azzopardi.

Cuomo has promised to make the issue of statue of limitations in child abuse cases a priority in 2017 after the Child Victims Act failed again this year in the state Legislature.

Currently in New York, victims must bring civil suits before their 23rd birthday against their attackers.

The Daily News led efforts earlier this year to pass the oft-defeated legislation, first introduced a decade ago.

The church’s IRCP would only apply to victims of church clergy sexual abuse within the boundaries of the archdiocese. Some of the first 170 cases involved date back decades.

Critics of Dolan’s response to the sex scandal in the Catholic Church stood outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral to express their skepticism.

Under the plan announced by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, victims who accept a settlement from the Archdiocese surrender their right to file a civil suit. (THEO WARGO/GETTY IMAGES)

“One of my questions for Cardinal Dolan is ‘Where have you been?’” said Bob Hoatson, president of the victims’ support group Road to Recovery. “We find the timing of this suspicious.”

Hoatson suggested the new program was pre-emptive because of the inevitability of state legislation reforming the statute of limitations aspect of the law.

Victims who accept a settlement from the Archdiocese surrender their right to file a civil suit under the program’s rules.

Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston attorney who has represented hundreds sex abuse victims, said there was a feeling among some that the settlement deals would allow the church to keep its secrets.

“They feel the church just wants to throw money at them and get rid of them,” said Garabedian. “It is time for Cardinal Dolan and the archdiocese to step to the plate and open the secret files. Show the truth.”