New York State Senate GOP Urged to Approve Child Victims Act before Legislative Session Ends in Five Weeks

By Kenneth Lovett
New York Daily News
May 9, 2017

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/n-y-pols-urged-pass-child-victims-act-session-article-1.3151109

Senate GOP Leader John Flanagan said Monday "we continue to have discussions on (the Child Victims Act)." (HANS PENNINK/AP)

With just over five weeks left in the legislative session, child abuse victims Tuesday pleaded with state Senate Republicans to side with them over predators.

A group of adults who were abused as kids, including a former priest, were back at the Capitol to push for passage of a bill to make it easier for survivors to seek justice that has been blocked by the Senate GOP for years.

One version of the Child Victims Act supported by advocates would do away with the civil and criminal time for adults who were abused as kids to bring cases, open a one-year window for victims who can no longer sue under the current law to do so, and treat public and private institutions the same when it comes to sex abuse cases.

“There’s no statute of limitations on the murder of the body; why is there a statute of limitation on the murder of the soul?” said Robert Hoatson, a former priest who was abused as a kid and now heads Road to Recovery.

Senate bill sponsor Brad Hoylman and Senate Democratic Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins also released a letter to Senate GOP Leader John Flanagan urging him to hold a public hearing on the bill and bring the legislation to the floor for a vote “as soon as possible.”

State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal at a press conference in the state Senate to lobby legislators to pass the Child Victiims Act on Jan. 4, 2017. (JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

Hoylman had used a procedure in the Senate rules to force a committee vote on the measure, but Republican leadership angered advocates by simply moving the bill to a different committee without any public discussion or vote.

Flanagan later Monday said “we continue to have discussions on (the Child Victims Act).”

He noted the Assembly has its own version of the Child Victims Act and that Timothy Cardinal Dolan has created a new program to pay out damages to victims of past abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of New York.

“It’s not just isolated to one bill,” he said. “I’m comfortable we continue to work on those issues. You don’t always have to have a hearing to get something done.”

Katherine Sullivan is a survivor of childhood sex abuse. She's pictured here in June 2016 before a rally to support the Child Victims Act. (JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

Asked if there is enough time for a deal before the scheduled end of the session in June, Flanagan said “hope springs eternal.”

Meanwhile, Assembly bill sponsor Linda Rosenthal called on Gov. Cuomo “to bring this bill to fruition.”

While advocate Marci Hamilton, who has been meeting with Cuomo and his staff, praised the sincerity of the efforts by the governor and his people, others were more critical.

One victim, Kat Sullivan, who was raped as a student in 1998 at Emma Willard, a private Albany-area girl’s school, said she had hope for the bill’s long-awaited passage when Cuomo in January called it a priority. But she was less happy that after the state budget passed in April, Cuomo told the media he had no real priorities left for the rest of the legislative session that is scheduled to end June 21.

Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said “we continue to work with the advocates to build the public support to get it passed, which does not exist at this time.”