NEW YORK (NY)
New York Magazine/The Daily Intelligencer
September 10, 2018
By Nick Tabor
New York State may be sitting on even more undisclosed cases of clergy sex abuse than Pennsylvania. The Catholic population here is the second largest in the nation — behind California’s — and almost no state makes it harder for victims to seek compensation. There’s never been a vast disclosure here, like the Spotlight investigation in Boston or the grand-jury probes in other states.
But now a sweeping disclosure seems to be close at hand. Barbara Underwood, the attorney general, issued civil subpoenas on Thursday to all eight Catholic dioceses in the state, demanding all the records they have on abuse, payments to victims, and potential cover-ups. She’s also created a hotline and a web form for victims who have never come forward to file complaints.
The documents she’s seeking go back decades, and state law only allows abusers to be charged within five years of the offense — so no matter what Underwood finds, there likely won’t be many criminal charges. However, she’s asked district attorneys throughout the state to partner with her and consider empaneling grand juries, depending on what surfaces in the coming months.
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