Ex-Emma Willard student doubts Cuomo's eagerness to change statute of limitations in sex abuse cases

By Robert Gavin
Times Union
May 9, 2017

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Ex-student-doubts-Cuomo-s-eagerness-to-change-11132966.php

Emma Willard School on Tuesday Oct. 4, 2016 in Troy , N.Y. Photo by Michael P. Farrell

Photo by Michael P. Farrell

Photo by Michael P. Farrell

In this Monday, Jan. 9, 2017 file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers one of his State of the State addresses in New York's One World Trade Center building. New York officials estimate the House of Representatives' Thursday, May 4, 2017 bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act would lead to 2.7 million residents losing coverage and the state losing up to $6.9 billion in federal Medicaid money. Cuomo said such cuts would reduce support for hospitals, nursing homes and 7 million New Yorkers who rely on the program. Photo by Richard Drew

ALBANY — A former Emma Willard student who revealed allegations of sexual abuse and a cover-up at the school last year on Tuesday questioned Gov. Andrew Cuomo's commitment to passing a law to end a five-year statute of limitations on child sexual abuse.

Kat Sullivan, who said she was raped by a teacher at Emma Willard in 1998 and shipped away to New Orleans, called child sexual abuse a "pandemic" that needs to be addressed this year with the passing of the Child Victims Act.

The bill would end the statute of limitations civilly as well as criminally, create a one-year retroactive window for survivors over 23 to sue and end a 90-day notice of claim for public institutions that the sponsors say now shields the facilities from lawsuits.

The bill has been pushed in Albany for 10 years. Cuomo backed its passage in his State of the State in January, saying survivors of the abuse deserve justice.

"I have been following Gov. Cuomo and his statements in the newspapers very carefully and I read promises in the newspapers to prioritize the Child Victims Act, which gave me hope he would be a champion," Sullivan told reporters in a packed news conference in the Legislative Office Building, where she was joined by lawmakers, advocates and other victims.

Sullivan said she was dismayed to read Cuomo's comments to the New York Daily News last month that there were no major legislative priorities left and that everything major he wanted to get done, got done.

"My concern is that the governor is not a man of integrity as he claims to be -- and if that sounds strong, I'm quoting him," she later told the Times Union.

The bill sponsors, Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, were in attendance at the news conference. Holyman released a letter written by him and Senate Democratic Conference leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan accusing the Senate of violating Senate rules in denying them requests for a public hearing on the bill and a chance to vote on it. They say

Sullivan, 37, a registered nurse who now lives in Orlando, highlighted statistics showing one in four woman are victims of child sex abuse, one in six men are victims of child sex abuse.

She reached a settlement with Emma Willard last year after publicly revealing that in 1998, her history teacher and soccer coach at the school bound and gagged her in his apartment, then sodomized her when she was 18.

Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for the governor, said: "We continue to work with the advocates to build the political support to get it passed, which does not exist at this time."

Flanagan told reporters his conference is internally discussing the issue. He said he has spoken to lawmakers in both houses.

"The Assembly has their own version. It's not just isolated to one bill," Flanagan said. "I'm comfortable that we continue to work on those issues. You don't always have to have a hearing to get something done."

Asked if it's too late to get something done this year: "Hope springs eternal. There's a lot of things we can do."