MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe
By Matt Rocheleau
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT DECEMBER 12, 2014
Citing a new Massachusetts law extending the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases, a judge has ruled that a former Billerica man can proceed with a lawsuit against Harvard University that alleges he was repeatedly raped and molested by a swimming coach at the campus more than four decades ago.
The lawsuit filed in June 2012 by Stephen Embry had been dismissed by a judge last November because it was filed about 15 months after the state’s statute of limitations on such cases had expired.
However, Embry’s lawyer, Carmen L. Durso, appealed that ruling, and in June lawmakers passed new legislation extending the statute of limitations in such cases. The law applied retroactively.
A judge this week ruled in favor of the appeal, overturning the dismissal of Embry’s case and allowing his suit against Harvard to proceed.
“Harvard’s motion to dismiss was originally granted solely on the basis of a statute of limitations which no longer applies to similar causes of action,” Middlesex Superior Court Judge Bruce R. Henry said in his nine-page decision Monday, which Durso provided a copy of to the Globe on Friday.
Durso applauded the ruling.
“When someone is abused as a child and they get to the point in t
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