NEW YORK
Hudson Valley 360
May 3, 2018
For Gary Greenberg and other backers of the Child Victims Act, passage in the state Assembly on Tuesday must have felt frustratingly like deja vu.
Here were the legislation’s supporters for the second straight year, watching the proposed bill survive the Assembly and then hoping the state Senate would finally get the message and seal the deal.
If the state Senate takes up the legislation before the end of session and it is signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the Child Victims Act would eliminate the statute of limitations in criminal and civil cases of sexual crimes against children, allowing the adult survivors to sue for compensation from their attackers and the institutions that covered up the abuses.
Greenberg, an attorney who lives in New Baltimore, is the survivor of brutal sexual assaults he suffered at the age of 7. He has led the fight for passage of the bill for several years. He is also a survivor of the state Legislature’s failures of nerve. Each year, Greenberg watched as the Child Victims Act came tantalizingly close to full passage, only to see it fall short in the state Senate.
He hopes the outcome will be different this year.
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