Accusers' lawyers dispute latest Archdiocese sex abuse report, reconciliation program

By Frank Esposito
Rockland/Westchester Journal News
October 02, 2019

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2019/10/02/ny-archdiocese-child-sex-abuse-report-gets-pushback-lawyers/3829490002/

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, speaks during a news conference, Monday, Sept. 30, 2019 in New York in response to an independent review of the policies and procedures for responding to allegations of sexual abuse within the New York archdiocese. Photo by Mark Lennihan

James Marsh talks about his crazy hours at work while in his White Plains office July 30, 2019. Marsh is an attorney whose firm is representing over 500 clients with sex abuse claims in New York. He's working long hours and doesn't get to see his family as much as he'd like. Photo by Frank Becerra Jr

Cardinal Timothy Dolan sat on the edge of his seat while the findings of an independent investigation into the Archdiocese of New York's handling of sex abuse claims was read at a press conference in New York City on Monday. 

A former federal judge and prosecutor Barbara Jones and a team of attorneys had combed through archdiocese records, and found the archdiocese hadn't had any credible claims against its priests since the early 2000s.

For the archdiocese, it's a light at the end of the tunnel, the epidemic of child sex abuse in the 20th century seemingly has a end.

Attorneys for plaintiffs, like Mitchell Garabedian, a prominent Boston-based attorney who represents more than 250 clergy sexual abuse plaintiffs in New York, see it as the light of another train.

"Since most clergy sexual abuse victims do not report being sexually abused until into their mid-forties or later, the archdiocese will not receive complaints of current sexually abusive conduct yet," Garabedian said.

Lawyers see the lag time in reporting abuse as just one potential fault with the report.

Chief among the the others is a lack of accountability for the decades of moving suspected abusers around the church.

"The report does not address how the current supervisors who have been and are complicit in the cover up will be removed from power so that children will be safe," Garabedian said.

The archdiocese thinks it's made major changes in order to protect children.

"There have been substantial changes in the church and society, and while we can't guarantee abuse will never occur again, the church stands by its 17-year abuse-free record," said Joseph Zwilling, archdiocese spokesperson.     

Accusers filed hundreds of complaints against the archdioceses — the archdiocese includes Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties, along with parts of New York City and the Hudson Valley — in both lawsuits and through the archdiocese's Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program.

To date the fund has paid out $67 million has been paid to 338 people who accused clergy of abuse.

In addition to the church's program, lawsuits are pouring into New York state courts under the new Child Victims Act, which opened a one-year window on Aug. 14 during which anyone can file a lawsuit accusing someone of sexual abuse in New York despite the statute of limitations.

Some 290 lawsuits were filed against the eight dioceses of the Catholic Church in New York state, 110 of which were filed against the New York Archdiocese on the first day that suits could be filed, The Journal News/lohud previously reported.

Jones suggested that the archdiocese continue to accept new claims with its reconciliation program.

Some attorneys like James Marsh, of New-York based Marsh laws are suggesting that his clients submit claims to the archdiocese's reconciliation program. 

But Marsh informs them also about significant drawbacks, like the amount of money and the amount of transparency with the program. 

The archdiocese program payouts are typically much smaller than what lawyers think they can get from suing the church.

Mallory Allen, a Washington-based attorney, typically has clients declining the church program's offer.

"Most of our clients have not accepted the offer, because, in our opinion, it significantly undervalues the claim," he said.

Allen's firm, Seattle-Based Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, had only five or six clients take the offer out of more than a 100 who submitted claims to the program.

For other accusers, the process for the archdiocese's program also falls short on timing and transparency.

"The program is slow walking a few claims. We've gone 60 days without updates to a specific claim," Marsh said.

In the archdiocese's program, accusers must answer questions and produce documents, but their questions about what will be done to the abuser and what that archdiocese knew at the time don't get answered, said Allen.

That can make evaluating deals hard for attorneys like Jason Amala, of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala. Without knowing what the church knows about the accused priest, it makes any telling clients if the offer the church program made is fair or not.

"If the church knew he was bad and moved him around that case could reach into the millions of dollars," Amala said. "However the church didn't appear to know about the abuse, that's another story."

Since the CVA window will close in a year, people who don't come forward will have to rely on the church's program.

The archdiocese doesn't know when it will end the program.

Marsh still plans on suggesting it to his clients as an option, but remains cautious.

"Cardinal Dolan has a duty to keep the archdiocese from going bankrupt," Marsh said. "That sometimes comes to cross purposes with taking on full accounting of the abuse."