Bill Giving Sex Abuse Victims More Time To Sue Passes Legislature

NEW YORK — State lawmakers on Monday passed a long-stalled bill to give victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to get justice for what they endured. The Child Victims Act would extend the time limits for abuse survivors to bring criminal charges and civil lawsuits and open a one-year window to revive old cases.

The bill would mark a significant update to state laws that were regarded among the worst in the nation for childhood abuse survivors. It was a top priority for the new Democratic state Legislature, which passed it overwhelmingly, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is likely to sign it.

"There's going to be court cases and a window and a lookback, et cetera, but to me that's all a means to the end," Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a Monday morning news conference. "The end was do justice, acknowledge this. Acknowledge the harm. Acknowledge that I was a victim. Acknowledge that the authority was abused."

Under current law, most victims of childhood sexual abuse can only bring criminal or civil cases against perpetrators until they are no older than 23 years old. The clock runs out well before many survivors come to terms with or report their abuse, according to a memo accompanying the bill.

If it's signed into law, the Child Victims Act would raise the maximum age at which survivors could bring civil cases related to their abuse to 55. It would also allow criminal charges to be brought for felony sex offenses until the victim is 28 years old and allow charges for misdemeanor sex offenses to be brought until the victim is 25.

The measure would also allow give adult survivors one year to file civil cases for abuse on which the statute of limitations had already expired, starting six months after the law takes effect.

"The Child Victims Act protects survivors’ rights, ensures they can seek the justice they deserve, and is a critical reform to right the wrongs of the past," Jennifer Freeman, a partner at the Marsh Law Firm, which has represented child sex abuse victims, said in a statement. "Legislators are doing the right thing, and this will empower countless survivors to come forward, tell their stories, and seek justice."

Monday's passage of the bill came after a years-long push from advocates and the New York Daily News, which used its front page to pressure Albany into action.

The reforms had some powerful opponents, including the Catholic Church, Orthodox Jewish groups, insurance companies and the Boy Scouts of America, according to the Daily News — though the state's Catholic Conference reportedly dropped its opposition to the bill late last week.

Evidence of opposition was scant in the records of Monday's vote. The bill passed unanimously in the 63-member Senate and cleared the Assembly with a vote of 142-3.

Some lawmakers shared their experiences of childhood sex abuse during the proceedings.

Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattan) said she was abused by a teacher when she was 13 and learned that he preyed upon another girl. "There’s not a single day that this doesn’t affect me," she said.

"I hope that people realize that this is not an attack on any institution. This is not an attack on anybody else," Niou said. "This is to protect victims. It's to protect children. And it's also to help to make somebody feel a little bit more whole again."

(Lead image: Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, an abuse survivor, talks about the sexual abuse she experienced as a child while explaining her vote in the affirmative for the Child Victims Act on Monday. AP Photo/Hans Pennink)