Will the Child Victims Act be permanent?

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With help from Jason Beeferman

State lawmakers and advocates will make a push next year to completely remove the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases in a drive that supporters hope will have national implications.

The measure is part of a four-bill package set to be unveiled today that’s meant to address New York’s laws for rape, sexual assault and human trafficking.

The proposals are also intended to build on laws in recent years aimed at making it easier for sexual assault victims and survivors to file civil cases.

“It’s to protect and improve society – whether it’s a skating rink, a church, Wall Street, or a prison,” Bridie Farrell, a former speed skater-turned-advocate, told Playbook in an interview. “It’s to improve society and make it safer.”

Farrell’s organization, America Loves Kids, is leading the campaign to pass the measures. Farrell is survivor of sexual abuse herself and has pressed for laws across the country.

The Child Victims Act, first approved in 2019, opened a “look-back” window for abuse survivors to file civil claims, regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. The deadline to file cases was extended amid the Covid pandemic.

Lawmakers and Hochul in 2022 also agreed to the Adult Survivors Act, a measure that applied to people aged 18 and older. The deadline to file cases expired Nov. 23.

Prominent people have been sued under the measure, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Eric Adams and state Sen. Kevin Parker. All have denied any wrongdoing.

But now lawmakers and advocates hope to go farther during the 2024 legislative session while also aiding survivors not covered by the initial laws. That includes ending the statute of limitations for most childhood sexual abuse claims – a sweeping move that could result in more cases being filed.

“The most important thing that everyone has learned is that trauma takes time,” Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, the sponsor of the legislation with state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, told Playbook in an interview. “There are so many reasons why survivors don’t tell people. They’ve been threatened. They feel shame. They feel the stigma and they bury it deep within themselves because it’s so traumatic.”

Lawmakers also want to expand the state’s rape shield law to include civil cases that would narrow the scope of what is considered admissible, like how a victim dresses.

A one-year look-back window suspending the statute of limitations for sex trafficking victims to file claims is being pushed. And legislators propose creating a “tolling” provision to make it easier for formerly incarcerated people to bring sexual abuse claims once they are released.

“The intent is to provide victims with a chance at justice,” bill sponsor Assemblymember Catalina Cruz said. “A person being in prison, a person being detained, doesn’t make them any less worthy of justice, let alone dignity.”

Advocates have said they also want institutions that have covered up incidents of abuse and assault held accountable by the push to expand civil sexual assault laws. A flood of legal claims filed under the Child Victims Act have led to multiple Catholic dioceses in New York declaring bankruptcy.

The New York State Catholic Conference had dropped its initial opposition to the Child Victims Act. Dennis Poust, the conference’s executive director, called for government entities that may have covered up abuse to be held accountable.

“We believe that any legislation dealing with child sexual abuse or adult sexual abuse needs to be equally applied to public institutions as well as private institutions,” he said. — Nick Reisman

IT’S TUESDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.

WHERE’S KATHY? Signing racial justice bill in Manhattan. (Yesterday’s scoop)

WHERE’S ERIC? Holding an in-person media availability session, speaking with Reverend Terry Lee of Byways and Hedges Youth for Christ Ministry and meeting with the Coalition of Concerned Members of Clergy to discuss the migrant crisis.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “This is a place where every day you wake up you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our Trade Center to a person who’s celebrating a new business that’s open. This is a very, very complicated city, and that’s why it’s the greatest city on the globe.” — Mayor Eric Adams, after he was asked to describe 2023 in one word.

THE KING OF CORONA? State Sen. Jessica Ramos was planning to host a town hall with city agencies in her Corona, Queens district on Monday night — until she found out Adams had scheduled his own town hall, for the exact same time, in Corona.

So Ramos stood down and told constituents she’d be postponing hers, instead encouraging them to go to the mayor’s in an email last week.

Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy pushed back on any implication they were bigfooting Ramos — who is no friend of the mayor. He told Playbook that the time and place had been set internally since Nov. 8 in coordination with Councilmember Francisco Moya. City Hall officials invited the public on Dec. 4. Ramos herself first tweeted about her town hall the same day — so City Hall may not have given her a heads up.

This could just be a typical scheduling snafu if it weren’t for the fact that Ramos is pitching herself as a challenger to Adams’ reelection effort. Her political team drafted a memo noting that “Mayor Adams is severely weakened by investigations and accusations against him and his appointees.” Polling shows his standing is weak with Latinos, women and young people, “all demographics where Senator Ramos has excelled and has demographic advantages,” reads the unsigned memo.

Ramos also had the highest net approval rating among mayoral contenders polled by Slingshot Strategies earlier this month. At +16, she beat out Comptroller Brad Lander, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and 2021 runner up Kathryn Garcia, who now works for Gov. Kathy Hochul. — Jeff Coltin

FROM THE TOWN HALL: It’s not just Brad Lander.

At the town hall Monday night, the mayor asked an attendee who voiced concern about the city budget if she had gone to the nation’s capital to protest a lack of federal funding for the migrant crisis — comments that echoed a recurring retort whenever Lander criticized the administration. (Side note: The migrant crisis accounts for only a portion of the looming $7 billion budget gap. And Lander did, eventually, go to D.C.)

The mayor was suggesting his questioner needed to fulfill this prerequisite before asking how City Hall planned to deliver all of the services he delineated at the nearly two-hour meeting while also mandating cuts to the city’s $110 billion current spending plan.

“Have you done any protests in Washington D.C. about what they are doing to us?” the mayor asked. “That’s what I need … I need for people to hold me responsible. But we have to hold each other responsible.”

He went on to say, “Everyone that steps up and says, ‘Eric, you should not be cutting the budget,’ they should be showing me their bus ticket or plane ticket that they went to Washington, D.C., and said you should not be doing this to New York City.”

In a recent Quinnipiac University Poll, 83 percent of registered voters surveyed said they were concerned budget cuts would impact their daily lives. If the mayor expects them all to head to the Capitol before registering their complaints, he could be waiting a while. — Joe Anuta

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Some three dozen faith and community leaders are appealing to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to investigate and potentially expel Inna Vernikov after the Republican council member brought a gun to a rally in October, according to a letter shared with Playbook.

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office had dropped the gun possession charge against Vernikov in November because there was no proof the gun could fire.

“Even if we accept that the firearm was inoperable at the time of the protest, her actions still represent a flagrant and shocking attempt to intimidate Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students exercising their constitutional right to protest,” the letter reads. “If in fact, the gun was inoperable, the only purpose for Council Member Vernikov to have brought it to the protest is pure intimidation.”

The coalition wrote that the lack of disciplinary action sends a “chilling signal to our communities.”

Vernikov was seen with a gun at her hip as supporters of Palestinians rallied outside Brooklyn College. She has cited her fight against antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel in statements about carrying the gun. — Emily Ngo