SYRACUSE (NY)
Post-Standard
February 14, 2019
By Julie McMahon
A survivor of clergy sexual abuse in Central New York filed a lawsuit against the Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese, this afternoon after a new law lifted restrictions on such suits.
The Child Victims Act, passed in New York in January and signed by the governor today, gives victims until their 55th birthday to file civil suits against their abusers and institutions.
Kevin Braney, 46, filed his lawsuit hours after Cuomo at 11:25 a.m. signed the bill, which went into effect immediately. By 3 p.m., Braney had filed accusations against three priests who he says raped and molested him over about two years beginning in 1988. As a teenager, he served as an altar boy at St. Ann’s Church in Manlius.
The lawsuit is the first reported in the Syracuse diocese. It is likely one of the first filed in New York state under the new Child Victims Act.
The spokeswoman and chancellor for the Syracuse diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Braney last year rejected a $300,000 settlement offer from the diocese through a compensation program set up for victims. Braney said his goal is not a financial settlement but to expose abuses by individual priests and cover-ups by the Catholic church. He said he’s committed to having a jury hear his claims.
“Every day I get a step closer to justice, the further I get from the horrors of the past,” he said.
Two priests Braney accuses in the lawsuit were named to the Syracuse diocese’s list of clergy members with credible claims against them last year. Both are deceased.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has released a list of priests who faced credible allegations of abuse.
A third priest, who is active, was previously cleared by diocesan officials and Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick of allegations brought forward by Braney.
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