Last summer, New York State Assemblywoman Marge Markey had lunch with Delaware State Senator Karen Peterson. On the menu: a strategy session on how Markey could successfully achieve passage of a bill that would make it easier for sexual abuse survivors to sue their molesters and the institutions that employed them.
In 2007, Peterson got the Delaware legislature to pass a measure repealing the statute of limitations for all child sexual abuse cases, and creating a two-year window during which past victims who had already exceeded the old statute of limitations could file civil lawsuits.
Two years and about 100 lawsuits later, Delaware’s “window” is set to close on July 10. Meanwhile, Markey’s proposal to extend the statute of limitations in New York and create a one-year window for previously time-barred lawsuits is closer than ever before to winning passage — provided it can overcome opposition by religious groups and political chaos in the state Senate.
But the advice Markey got at that lunch has not always been easy to follow, and her bill, scheduled for a vote in the Assembly on June 16, has not enjoyed the direct path to success that Peterson found in Delaware.
Peterson told Markey, a Democrat from Queens, to rely on the persuasive power of
grass-roots activists and to line up as many endorsements as possible. She has done both. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a group of primarily Catholic abuse victims, and Survivors for Justice, a group of Jewish survivors of child sexual abuse, have been lobbying Albany lawmakers hard.
“You can’t fight the money the church has,” Peterson said in a conversation with the Forward, noting that Delaware is a heavily Catholic state. “All we had on our side was we knew we were right, and we had this incredible group of people that hung with us. That made it happen.”
Survivors for Justice began June 9 running a series of eight radio commercials in English, Yiddish and Hebrew, warning that “there is an epidemic of unreported sexual abuse in the frum community,” and urging passage of the Markey bill. Television commercials will follow. The legislation has become a bitter battleground for Jewish abuse survivors who are outraged that some Orthodox Jewish organizations, including Agudath Israel of America and Torah Umesorah, have joined the Catholic Church in opposing the bill.
Peterson had one more important word of advice for Markey: “Our mantra was, no amendments.”
That bit of counsel has fallen by the wayside. Markey made two significant changes to her bill in order to get it the promise of a vote by the full Assembly. She added language that explicitly includes public institutions in the one-year window, addressing criticism that the bill unfairly targeted religious groups. And she put an age limit — 53 — on who could sue over past abuse, in order to dispel complaints about the possibility of 80-year-old abuse claims prompting lawsuits.
These changes were driven by pragmatism. The age limit particularly upset sexual abuse survivors, and Markey was unhappy about it, as well, spokesman Mike Armstrong said. But he said, “This was something that [will make] it possible to get a majority voting for the bill.”
The other amendment was also a political tradeoff. The Catholic Church has argued that the bill unfairly targets religious institutions while letting public schools off the hook. Other lawmakers told Markey that the issue was a deal breaker.
“We’ve gotten pledges of support now from people who were on the fence,” Armstrong said.
But that support comes with a political risk. Now, Markey and supporters of the bill may have to defend against public employees’ unions and other organizations that see the measure as a threat. The United Federation of Teachers, a powerful union, has said it will not oppose the bill. But a group representing about 700 school superintendents in New York has gone on record against it.
The Delaware bill did include public institutions, Peterson said, but she didn’t know of any civil sex-abuse lawsuits against public schools. In California, a 2003 lawsuit window approved by the state legislature prompted about 1,000 civil suits, with only a handful targeting public institutions. (The California Supreme Court later ruled that the window law did not apply to public schools, but no one knew that at the time the lawsuits were being filed.)
The public-private debate can cut both ways. In Colorado, state lawmaker Gwyn Green introduced a bill for several years running that would have created a window for long-ago sex abuse claims. When the bill included only private institutions, the church attacked it as anti-Catholic. When she expanded it to include public institutions, it was defeated by opposition from public employees’ unions. Green who is 70, recently announced her retirement from the state House and named the failure of that statute of limitations bill as her one main regret.
In New York, at least, Markey’s amendments have not quelled opposition from the Catholic Church and from some Orthodox Jewish groups. The bill is still “terrible public policy,” said Richard Barnes, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference: “Statutes of limitation exist in law for a good reason, and it is impossible to defend decades-old claims; [and] the bill could seriously impact the ability of the Catholic Church and other not-for-profits to provide health care, social services and education programs.”
Rabbi Avi Shafran, the spokesman for Agudath Israel, agreed: “Our objection was and remains the window provision [temporarily] lifting the statute of limitations.”
The wild card in the debate over Markey’s bill is the New York Senate, which as of the Forward’s press time had entered a state of dysfunction unusual even for Albany. Democrats were struggling to regain control of the Senate after Republicans joined forces with two Democratic members to oust the Senate majority leader in a series of surprise parliamentary maneuvers. Which side will end up controlling the Senate, when the senators will get back to the business of actually legislating, and what they will do with the child sex abuse bill is anyone’s guess.
For her part, Peterson did confront some last-minute surprises when her bill was debated in the Delaware Senate. She remembers lining up her support but worrying about two senators who she thought might oppose the bill. When one of them, known for his eloquent argumentativeness, stood to speak, she said, “I thought, oh, okay, here we go.”
Instead of attacking on the measure, though, the senator disclosed that he had been molested as a child, and said he thought that passing the bill would be the best thing they could do for the state.
“The place went absolutely silent,” Peterson recalled. Her bill passed unanimously after that.
Contact Rebecca Dube at dube@forward.com
I agree and disagree. We need to hold those accountable. The problem is that most of those in the Assembly have zero concept.
This bill WILL damage those most brutally raped, those with lost childhoods and adulthood's. THIS BILL EQUALS IN CRUELTY WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE TO THE CHILD. They are left alone again.
The life of a small child violently raped;
1. Lived in pain and isolation, unable to seek help because those in the highest positions threatened them from telling. 2. Completely lost childhood - unable to laugh and play, a life in isolation. 3. Most are permanently mentally disabled. Adulthood's of complete chaos and never understanding why due to a lifelong trauma, while others built families and retirement. 4. The awakening from a trauma much later in life, realizing a lost life. Most people could never endure such unimaginable pain. 5. Rejection from the church and their parishioners. Called liars and it is now their fault for exposing damage to this organization. 6. The Markey Bill with age limitation that painfully harms those that were the most severely damaged.
Fact: The more traumatic the abuse, specifically forcible sodomy on prepubescent children (ages 1 to 13 normally), the longer it takes for victims to wake from the trauma. These victims are those mentally ill. Limiting the age to 53 is cruel to those who where damaged the most. Most will not wake until the 50, 60's and later, the trauma was to great. Most from this group were never able to graduate and lived a life of isolation and hyper vigilance.
Fact: this bill is written so those who were inappropriately touched and developed no permanent mental damage win. These suits are the ones that should be eliminated. Most of this group graduated from schools and colleges.
Proving old cases is easy: Unlike murder, the primary witness is generally still alive. Most pedophiles average 117 victims. It is more likely to find many victims of the same pedophile.
If the goal here is to limit the number of cases to real rapes and real permanent damage to victims then the following bill is most fair to all.
The Bill
Create two classes of abuse to enable better tracking of abuses to children.
1. Children that were forcibly raped at age 13 and under. This would be classified as pedophilia whose victims were forcibly raped, sodomized and otherwise penetrated. 2. Children forcibly raped from ages 14 and 15. This would be classified as teenage children forcibly raped.
A window would be open for two years enabling suits to come forward. More time is needed for these cases as they cause lifelong trauma on children.
After reading your suggestions of seperating the abuse into two classes and reading your discription of the level of damage done by such abuse the only word which comes to mind is IDIOT...the others would not be printed
Those of us who have suffered the longest are betrayed again--after the false hope of this bill... Some have a support network to see them through this and others don't. How will Markey sleep now, knowing what she's done to those left aside for political reasons? Despair can lead to terrible things after all these years.
An arbitrary age, picked by Markey, is as unjust as no window at all. Unless there is justice for all victims, there is no justice.
forgot the following.
Memories.
The more traumatic the experience, the more powerful the memories. Memories do not fade as some falsely state. Ask anyone over 50 where they were when President Kennedy died. Most will tell you exactly. The more traumatic the memory, the better the vividness when recalled.
Also, passing the law as I suggested still places the burden of PROOF on the victim. There is no free ride here. The criminal of the most horrendous crime to humanity had lots of victims, proof becomes easier.
I agree Cait. It is horrible what she is doing.
Originally the bill had no age limit. She told me she would not impose one.
Her goal was to minimize law suits which is why I posted above. Sadly those who were never traumatized (requires violence/force) get to gain while those MOST traumatized lose. Likely those over 50 had it much worse as it took much longer to wake from the trauma.
The reason for categorizing is to acquire statistics. In other words being able to draw a conclusion as to how many pedo related cases.
FYI I was raped from ages 8 to 10 - once gang raped by 4 and once a priest intentionally suffocated me. I played dead and slept in the woods.
In reality, there should be NO statutes of limitation as respects child abuse. Like murder, the soul of the child (which would include velnerable adults) is literally destroyed when shattered by those they trust. And it's a problem that includes all of society today.
Still, in spite of what has happened in NY, I am proud of Ms. Markey for her determined effort and hope that she will continue to persist.
The institutional church has massive holdings and spreads bribe mnoney everywhere, so it's no surprise to me that the legislator has forced her to amend and amend again. I too was hopeful that she would be successful. Justice will only occur if and when catholics in the pews become aware that they too have been abused, spiritually, financially and socially. In addition, they dictate their preferences as to who should be elected to what position in our government without paying taxes. Is this the United States of Rome?
I agree Cait. It is horrible what she is doing.
Originally the bill had no age limit. She told me she would not impose one.
Her goal was to minimize law suits which is why I posted above. Sadly those who were never traumatized (requires violence/force) get to gain while those MOST traumatized lose. Likely those over 50 had it much worse as it took much longer to wake from the trauma.
The reason for categorizing is to acquire statistics. In other words being able to draw a conclusion as to how many pedo related cases.
FYI I was raped from ages 8 to 10 - once gang raped by 4 and once a priest intentionally suffocated me. I played dead and slept in the woods.
Do victims of priest abuse and hierarchy and church coverup who are over 53 have a tatoo on their chests saying SACRIFICE ME.
Do victims of incest, child rape, sodomy torture etc.. who are now over 53 have a sign on them saying count me out i never counted in the first place?
I am very sad about the practices of the big bully catholic church and their need to lie and cheat and steal rathar than do what is right and i am sad that our systems and the church laity enable them.
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Thank you for your article on clergy abuse. We have information on clergy abuse and ritual abuse crimes at http://ritualabuse.us/
'Endemic' rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care, inquiry finds - Beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common at institutions that held up to 30,000 children, Ryan report states - Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent - guardian.co.uk, 5/20/09 Rape and sexual molestation were "endemic" in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages, a report revealed today. The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation. The high court judge Sean Ryan today unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's commission into child abuse, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. Police were called to the news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending. More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families - a category that often included unmarried mothers - were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last facilities shut in the 1990s....The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but instead endured frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless....The report concluded that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by transferring offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again. "There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse," the report said. "The safety of children in general was not a consideration." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-schools-child-abuse-claims
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse http://www.childabusecommission.ie/index.html
Executive Summary - Conclusions - 1. Physical and emotional abuse and neglect were features of the institutions. Sexual abuse occurred in many of them, particularly boys' institutions. Schools were run in a severe, regimented manner that imposed unreasonable and oppressive discipline on children and even on staff. http://www.childabusecommission.com/rpt/ExecSummary.php
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse - Volume I - Volume V http://www.childabusecommission.com/rpt/
Abuse Tracker - http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/
The Mrakey Bill is discriminatory on its face. The departure from traditional legal rights and protections is not matched with compelling public interest. There is a vindictive vein that suggests bad law comes from such fury. The damage it would do to religious bodies--which generally act rightly and do not partake nor condone in child abuse--far outweighs the "catharsis" is is said to bring for erstwhile past victims. The Markey Bill seems to me to be just another piece of the erosion of civil rights and should be rejected.
Frank
I'll bet if those were Wal-mart's customers children raped you wouldn't discriminate and hate the victims.
Seems you lack knowledge of trauma and lost lives. You must think it is a joke to see adults with mental illness caused by many times repeated and violent rape.
You must also think it was rather funny that catholic priests raped and threatened small children who couldn't protect themselves. Yes, I did say threatened, if the abuse was not bad enough.
BTW, this was a religion that did these things. A religion that receives 65% of its funds for Vatican revenue generators, US charities, from tax dollars.
Frank I guess by your statement you have not even read a little on what has been brought out in court documents regarding sexual abuse in the catholic church. not only here in the USA but every country with a large catholic population.Time and time again it is shown the church not only hid the abuse but in many many case protected the abuser and set him up in a position to abuse again. I have not read any of the legal documents available as I get sick almost immediaatly but I have read remarks of some who have read them .The latest being what took place in Ireland.In the minds of abuse victim like myself there is little difference from what was done years ago than what is taking place today. The churchs actions are protecting predators. The real concern of the church is monetary and not for the victims. I am disgusted with the church actions lies and continued deceptions..
Those as Frank love religion more than harmed children.
No doubt, many abuses happen at home. However in the NY diocese I was raised in over 20% of clergy over a 50 year period of time molested children. Any other organization match this???? Percentages in general society are a mere fraction of that.
Next; Most abused will engage in what delusional religions refer to as sin. These are those children traumatized and have no concept of life. Proof can be found that over 30% of males and over 55% of females incarcerated were sexually abused as children.
Abused children lack awareness until they wake from their trauma;
Engage in early sex and most likely undergo an abortion procedure. What does the RCC say of that?
Many have difficulty in identifying sexual orientation. And the RCC raises money to stop gay marriages?
Many engage in lawlessness.
I guess the RCC is a one of the biggest hypocrites for 2000 years. Giving justice to victims enables victims to wake from traumas caused by this religions clergy. Yet Catholics say, too bad suffer. And then they point their finger and say sinner to the abused.
How disgusting an organization, filthy.
To the rest of New Yorkers that practice honesty and fairness unlike the RCC that cares of only themselves, pass a law without age restrictions. (Catholic Charities is Vatican revenue generator receiving nearly 65% from our tax dollars. )