Margaret Markey, state assemblywoman, has introduced legislation regarding childhood sexual abuse since 2006. The Queens lawmaker proposes that legislation would allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to seek criminal charges and file civil lawsuits.
Her attempts to change the law have failed but other abuse scandals have surfaced that allow her to call for a complete end to the current criminal and civil law on the books. She once again is introducing the Child Victims Act. Current state law requires survivors/victims to file a case by the age of 23 years old. Previous attempts to pass “Markey’s” law would have extended the deadline by five years.
Some of the explosive scandals that have erupted in New York State include the Poly Prep Country Day School and their former football coach Phil Foglietta, several New York City Department of Education debacles with child sexual predators infiltrating the public school system, Catholic school scandals, Diocese of Buffalo and Archdiocese of New York scandals, Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish schools and community organization scandals, Christian School and Church scandals including the Pentecostal Assembly Church of Brooklyn and the New Covenant Christian School located in the Bronx are just a few of the institutions that have had allegations of sexual abuse.
Markey’s office has repeatedly held that the world has changed and that New York state needs to confront these issues. Markey is quoted as saying “there is no limit on what is so often a lifetime of suffering and anguish for victims of child sex abuse. Likewise there must be no limit on the ability of society to prosecute abusers and to hold accountable the institutions and organizations who protect and hide them.”
The Markey Bill has been opposed strongly by the Catholic Church and other institutions for many years. The State of New York needs to pass this bill and stop allowing institutions to profit from their bad behavior and cover-ups by hiding behind the statute of limitations.
Copyright 2016, b&a opinions.
–Michele M. Betti of the Law Offices of Betti & Associates is an advocate for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
–If you have any information on any pedophile priests in the United States or other child sexual abusers please immediately come forward and report their abuse to law enforcement agencies.
