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Opponents of Child Victims Act for adults sexually abused as kids mostly operated in the shadows to kill the bill
By Kenneth Lovett
ALBANY — When it came to again killing the Child Victims Act this year, few stepped forward to take credit. Many opponents of the measure to make it easier for child sex abuse survivors to bring cases as adults preferred operating in the shadows, leaving the heavy lifting of fighting the bill publicly to the Catholic Church. “My gut tells me there's safety in silence,” said survivor and advocate Kathryn Robb. “These are youth serving organizations and very much like the Senate (that killed the bill), this will be something that defines them.” In all, just two formal memos opposing the bill were filed with the sponsors during the legislative session. The state Catholic Conference headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan and New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, a statewide evangelical Christian advocacy organization, were the only groups to outline in writing their opposition to the legislation. But other groups known to oppose the measure, including the Boy Scouts of America, Agudath Israel and the insurance industry, offered no similar letters. “I guess they think they’re more effective trying to manipulate behind the scenes and this round it worked in the state Senate — but not for much longer,” said Child Victims Act Assembly sponsor Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan). The Daily News previously reported the Boy Scouts quietly hired ex-state Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Nassau County) to lobby against the issue for $12,500 a month. A Boy Scouts spokesman did not return emails asking why the organization did not file a formal memo of opposition that interested parties on both sides of an issue routinely send to the bill sponsors in the Assembly and Senate. He also didn't respond to questions of what exactly the Boy Scouts found objectionable in the bill. Two representatives of Agudath Israel declined comment. “They don't want anything on the record,” said survivor Kat Sullivan. “They want someone else to do their dirty work. I guess (the Boy Scouts) are always prepared , except when it comes to taking accountability.” Senate bill sponsor Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) said the silence is why the Legislature needs to hold hearings on the issue, something the Senate GOP would not do. “It’s appalling none of these entities have the guts to come forward given the stakes,” he said. The state Assembly this year passed the Child Victims Act for the first time since 2008. Gov. Cuomo introduced an identical version of the bill, but it died in the Senate without coming to the floor for a vote. Sen. Jeffrey Klein, the Bronx Democrat who leads a group of eight breakaway Senate Dems aligned with the GOP, introduced a compromise bill that also did not make it to the floor. In its memo of opposition to the Hoylman-Rosenthal bill, the Catholic Conference called sexual abuse “a societal scourge” but said the organization could not support the bill mainly because it creates a one-year window to revive old cases that are time-barred under current law. “This extraordinary provision would force institutions to defend alleged conduct decades ago about which they have no knowledge, and in which they had no role, potentially involving employees long retired, dead or infirm, based on information long lost, if it ever existed,” the Catholic Conference wrote in its memo. The organization said it supports legislation that would do away with the criminal statute of limitation on sex abuse cases entirely.
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