NEW YORK
New York Observer
By Daniel Edward Rosen 8/29
Federal District Court judge Frederic Block ruled in a Brooklyn court Tuesday that private school Poly Prep could not use New York State’s statue of limitations to thwart a lawsuit levied by its former students who allege that a popular football coach had molested them.
The decision comes amid rumblings that a group of former Horace Mann students, who have accused the Bronx private school’s faculty of sexual abuse during the 1970s and 80s, had hired attorney Gloria Allred to pursue legal action against the school.
Poly Prep argued to have the case against former football coach Phil Foglietta dismissed on the grounds that the statute of limitations for his accusers –which include 10 former students and two day campers, according to The New York Daily News–had expired after those students turned 23:
“Central to plaintiffs’ claims in the present case are their allegations that Poly Prep engaged in an affirmative course of conduct during the period of limitations to deceive the plaintiffs into believing that they had no claim against Poly Prep because the school had no knowledge of Foglietta’s wrongdoing…Foglietta was consistently portrayed to the plaintiffs as a reputable and esteemed football coach throughout the limitations period (1966-1991),” Block wrote in Tuesday’s order.
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