Sexual Abuse Survivors Join Debate Over Extending Claims
Will Legislation Help Victims, or Bankrupt Churches and Schools?
By Rebecca Dube
Published March 11, 2009, issue of
March 20, 2009.
Jews
who say they were sexually abused as children by their rabbis are
seeking to tip the balance in favor of a long-stalled bill that would
extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in New York
State — legislation that could have far-reaching impact on some
Orthodox communities as they struggle with emerging allegations of
child abuse.
The
Catholic Church, fearing crippling lawsuits, has lobbied strenuously
against the bill and has blocked it in the State Senate for the past
three years, even though it has passed with strong margins in the
Assembly. But sponsors and supporters think that this year, the bill
will finally be approved.
Mostly, that's because
Democrats now control the state Senate and key Senate leaders say they
are in favor of extending the statute of limitations. But advocates say
that fledgling lobbying efforts by Jewish activists have also played an
important role by demonstrating that child sexual abuse is not just a
Catholic issue.
''The main complaint the Catholic
bishops have is that it's targeted at them,'' said Marci Hamilton, a
professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law who is a leading
expert on child sexual abuse and an advocate for the bill. ''When
Orthodox victims came forward and started talking about their issues,
it made it clear that they needed this protection, too.''
No
less important, Hamilton said, has been the decision by Orthodox
communal leaders, so far, to stay on the sidelines. ''When the rabbis
did not join forces with the church, it spoke volumes,'' she said.
The legislation is expected to once again be voted on by the Assembly — and easily pass — by the end the month.
The
bill would lengthen the statute of limitations for both civil and
criminal cases. It also would open a one-year window for civil claims
by victims whose alleged abuse occurred too long ago for them to sue
even with the longer deadline.
So far, no Jewish
organizations have formally opposed the bill. Advocates have heard
rumors of Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella group for many
Orthodox institutions, quietly lobbying against it; but its spokesman
Rabbi Avi Shafran said the organization is formulating a position on
the issue and hasn't yet come to a conclusion.
Meanwhile, Catholics are turning up the heat, and calling for Jewish leaders to join the opposition.
''Any
organization that deals with children ought to be opposed to the bill
because it opens them up to unfair claims. Clearly it will be
devastating for the Jewish community,'' said Dennis Poust, director of
communications of the New York State Catholic Conference. ''The reason
statutes of limitations exist is because evidence goes away, memories
fade, witnesses die. We think this is an effort to bankrupt the church
and other nonprofit organizations.''
Under current
New York law, alleged victims of child sexual abuse must file a
criminal or civil complaint within five years of the abuse, or five
years after they turn 18, making 23 the upper age limit. The Assembly
bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, a Queens Democrat,
would add five years, extending it to 28.
The
church especially objects to the one-year window where individuals who
allege they were abused decades ago can sue their abusers in civil
court.
Experts on the issue — and the alleged
victims themselves — say child victims can take many years, or even
decades, after they reach adulthood to process what was done to them
and act on it.
''Most victims of abuse actually
don't come forward or start dealing with their abuse until their 30s,
40s or much later,'' said Joel Engelman, who alleges he was repeatedly
abused by the principal of his Satmar school.
Like many other alleged victims, Engelman claims the school was made aware of the teacher's actions but covered up for him.
Engelman
said his experience shows the need for statute-of-limitations reform.
Unlike most victims, he came to terms with his abuse and told his
parents about it when he was in his early 20s. When he and his parents
confronted leaders at Brooklyn's United Talmudic Academy with
Engelman's allegations against Rabbi Avrohom Reichman, the school
removed Reichman from his teaching position.
But
the school reinstated the rabbi last July — one week after Engelman
turned 23 and was no longer able to sue. ''They flat out said to my
parents: 'There's nothing you can do. Goodbye, we don't care,'''
Engelman said.
Officials from the United Talmudical Academy did not return a phone call seeking a response to Engelman's allegations.
The
proposed legislation would allow people like Engelman to sue his
alleged abuser and also the school. But Markey says the bill's greatest
impact will be identifying suspected pedophiles, thus preventing future
abuse.
''Statutes of limitations are basically
arbitrary, and it's our responsibility as legislators to support the
victims,'' Markey said.
Previously, California,
Minnesota and Delaware passed laws with similar windows allowing people
to revive claims of old abuse. In California, the 2003 window prompted
about 1,000 lawsuits, some 850 of which targeted the Catholic Church.
Poust says the wave of lawsuits in California forced the church to
settle many cases regardless of merit, forcing the church to sell off
properties and decrease funding to poor parishes.
Markey
is unimpressed by such complaints: ''It has not bankrupted anyone,'' the
assemblywoman said. ''Most importantly, in California it identified 300
predators that were not known before. That's the real reason to do this
— to protect others.''
In the past three years, four
ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Brooklyn and their schools have been sued or
arrested for the abuse of boys. When Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a
co-sponsor of Markey's bill, asked listeners to his popular radio show
to call in and report child sexual abuse, he got more than 1,000
responses — though, controversially, he has refused to release names of
suspected pedophiles to police.
Meanwhile, as he
lobbies for change alongside other abuse survivors, Engelman feels
haunted by his own lost opportunity to pursue justice.
He said, ''I wake up every morning thinking, the guy's still in the classroom.''
