WESTPORT (NY)
North Country Public Radio
August 19, 2019
By Brian Mann
Lawsuits filed last week under the Child Victims Act claim children were targeted by abusers and pedophiles over a period of decades in dozens of communities across the North Country. The Boy Scouts are named in at least one of the suits, but most of the cases target the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg.
More than 400 lawsuits were filed statewide last week under the Child Victims Act, after New York temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on sexual violence cases.
At a press conference in Watertown, attorney Taylor Stippel unveiled 14 new lawsuits against the Diocese of Ogdensburg.
Stippel said she and other attorneys are still trying to understand the scope of the sexual violence that happened here.
“Over one third of the list that the diocese has deemed as credibly accused [priests] are still alive,” said Stippel, with the firm Anderson Advocates. “We don’t know where they are. That’s a problem. That’s a public safety hazard.”
North Country Bishop Terry LaValley has officially identified 30 priests who face credible allegations of abuse – the most recent case nearly 20 years old. But Stippel says these lawsuits already name four clergy not on the official list.
“How many more survivors have come to the diocese with reports of what they suffered? How many perpetrators are not on that list?” Stippel said.
Stippel says one case filed last week identifies a priest, Father John Downs, still living and working in semi-retirement in Ogdensburg.
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