BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO Radio
Oct. 8, 2019
By Mike Desmond
The University at Buffalo Law School on Monday hosted a look at the Child Victims Act, the new state law that has reopened New York’s history of sexual abuse for a one-year window. The law allows victims to go to court against abusers, even if the abuse occurred decades ago.
For months, the CVA has been an issue in the state’s legal system. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed, mostly against the Catholic Church around the state, although more are now being filed against public schools.
A bankruptcy, for example, of a Catholic diocese, might mean there will be no chance for a victim to testify or internal church records on priests to become public. State Assemblymember Monica Wallace said she has legislation to make sure it never happens again.
“I have a piece of legislation that’s called the CARE Act, Child Abuse Reporting Expansion Act, which is intended to make clergy from all denominations mandatory reporters, because we need to recognize that they weren’t mandatory reporters is part of the reason that this abuse was allowed to proliferate for so many years,” Wallace said. “So what we want to do is make sure that we look prospectively and make sure that nothing like this happens again.”
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