Hikind straddles fence supporting Child Victims Act and weaker Lopez bill
By Michael Orbach
April 3, 2009 — Web Exclusive
Proposed child abuse legislation that had been left for dead got an unusual new lease on life this week when it passed a New York State Assembly committee after first being soundly defeated.
The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), would extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse for civil cases by two years. A redrafted version of the bill passed the Codes Committee on Tuesday by a margin of 18-1. The bill will now be voted on in the full Assembly, before making its way to the State Senate.
Sexual abuse activists have criticized the Lopez bill saying that it would help sexual predators. They claim it is meant to detract attention from the Child Victims Act, stronger legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Marge Markey (D-Queens), which would extend the civil and criminal statutes by five years and, more critically, open up a yearlong window to bring cases that currently are beyond the statute of limitations.
An earlier draft of the Lopez bill, critics revealed, even went so far as to exempt private institutions, like churches and yeshivas, from being liable for sexual abuse acts committed by their employees. Supporters of the Lopez bill maintain that the Markey bill does not treat public and private entities the same way and is therefore discriminatory.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), whose recent campaign against sexual abuse inside the Chareidi community drew national attention, co-sponsored both Lopez bills as well as the Markey bill. At an event to promote sexual abuse awareness on March 22, Hikind announced that while he had objections to the yearlong window, he would support the Markey bill. Hikind declined to comment to The Jewish Star for this article, but in a letter to The Jewish Week, he wrote that he will “support the notion of a window provision, but with some type of limitation” and stated that he will seek a compromise between both bills, one that will yield a “significant change to sexual abuse legislation as it currently stands.”
The New York Catholic Conference came out strongly against the Markey Bill, as Catholic groups have opposed similar legislation across the nation. A similar bill passed in California cost the Catholic Church $1.2 billion in awards to sexual abuse victims. In New York, the bill faces additional opposition from some Jewish organizations.
The executive director of the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg, Rabbi David Niederman, told The Jewish Star that the yearlong window “would make it impossible for innocent people to defend themselves” and that it would serve as a “deterrent” for qualified teachers.
United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg is closely affiliated with United Talmudic Academy of Williamsburg, which is currently being sued by Joel Engelman, 23, who alleges that a teacher in the school sexually abused him when he was eight years old. Engelman’s case is now beyond the statute of limitations; his case would likely be strengthened if the Markey bill were to pass.
Other Jewish organizations have wavered on the Child Victims Act bill. The Orthodox Union has said it favors an extension of the statute of limitations and does not oppose the Markey bill. The OU has not taken a public position regarding the Lopez bill. In an op-ed in The Jewish Star, David Mandel, the CEO of Ohel, the largest Jewish social service organization, said Ohel supports the extension of the statute of limitations but made no mention of the yearlong window. Agudath Israel has not come out with a position regarding either bill as of Friday afternoon, April 3.
Marci Hamilton, a professor at Yeshiva University and the author of “Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect its Children,” said it was a “non-event” that the Lopez bill had made it out of committee, after all.
“The bill accomplishes nothing for victims,” Hamilton explained. “It’s classic form to make them look like they’re doing something, but it is keeping the secrets and keeping the predators under wraps.”
For Hamilton, the window is the most crucial element of the bill.
“We know how the window works,” she said, noting that when a similar bill passed in California, 300 previously unknown predators were identified. “It’s pretty simple — if you’re against the window, you don’t want the predators out.”
Among the members of the Assembly Codes Committee who voted for the bill, sentiment was mixed. Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), the chair of the committee, felt that both bills were valuable tools for preventing child abuse and that a compromise between them was possible.
A spokesman for Assemblyman Thomas Alfano (R-North Valley Stream) said that while Alfano voted in favor of the Markey bill in the past, the Lopez bill was “better legislation.” Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Little Neck) said that he voted in favor of the Lopez bill since the window in the Markey Bill is “not a deterrent.”
“It opens up a Pandora’s box and that’s the reason why there’s a statute of limitations in the first place,” asserted Weprin.
However, Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D-Brooklyn), said that the Assembly favored the Markey bill.
“I think that the consensus is that the Markey bill is the better bill,” Cymbrowitz told The Jewish star. He also said that the Lopez bill’s main claim of equality between public and private institutions is a “red herring.”
Assemblyman Daniel J. O’Donnell (D-Manhattan), who cast the only vote against the revamped Lopez bill in committee, seemed almost disgusted with the proposed legislation.
“The Lopez Bill is not designed to become law. It’s designed to prevent the Markey bill from becoming law,” O’Donnell explained to The Jewish Star. “Without the window, victims of sexual abuse who are seeking justice and healing will be deprived. Many of these victims fear that their abusers are still at large and have access to children; their [the victims'] primary concern is what happened to them does not happen to another child at the hands of their victimizer.”
Assemblyman Vito Lopez did not return calls.
In response to Rabbi David Niederman,comment: “would make it impossible for innocent people to defend themselves” and that it would serve as a “deterrent” for qualified teachers.”
Innocent people do not need to defend themselves it is the guilty ones that need a defense. As far as being a detterent to qualified teachers, wrong again, it will serve as a deterent to “qualified pedophiles” just as it is meant to!!!
Unfortunately, OHEL cannot come out in favor of the “open window” because they are basically nogeah b’davar vis a vis the Mondrowitz situation. Supporting the “open window” would be akin to putting their own heads in a noose. That would be a foolish move on their parts, therefore there is no attorney in their right mind that would allow OHEL to support the Markey bill. It would be ill advised therefore I personally cannot blame them for their position and do not understand why they are being asked over and over again. They really can’t do it, and asking them is just plain futile.
As far as the Agudah and all other Religious Jewish Organizations are concerned, it is high time they took the high road and realized there is a reason, and a good one at that, that Hashem has finally allowed the rug to be removed, or the dirty secrets that were swept under it to have grown so large that it can no longer be covered up. The OPEN WINDOW will allow the sheidim to exit as it allows the fresh air to enter and clean house of all the corrupt and sexually immoral individuals who sacrificed our children like lambs to the slaughter.
Yitzchok Avinu is the only child that Hashem even considered as a sacrifice and he only as a test for his father Avraham, but that was only a test with absolutely no intention of allowing one hair on his head to be harmed. How could Rabbi Pinny Lipshutz even suggest that our children were chosen to be punished in such a vile and abhorent way as a gezeirah in his article in the Yated? What has our Frum Yiddish olam come to, with all this Chilul Hashem being perpetrated, covered up, and falsely explained?
Let the window open wide and let the cleansing and healing begin. Allow the cleansing to reach far and wide as deep and as far back as necessary to do a proper taharah of this generation, even if it goes back 20, 30 or even 60 years if that is what it takes to heal the victims and bring closure to this abomination.
There is no statute of limitation on the degree and length of time a victim suffers the short term and long term effects of their devastation, degradation, humiliation, pain and suffering at the hands of these dishonorable and disgusting molesters. These are beasts in sheeps clothing, who sin against Hashem and against children, who perform immoral sexual acts on children and pretend that Hashem does not see, then cross over the threshold to the public eye and pretend to be pious, charitable, and G-d fearing Jews.
If we were talking about a bill against Gay rights legislation, you would see ALL religious leaders coming out wholeheartedly for it. There would be marches and rallies and fundraisers. You would see all these figures shaking hands with the political supporters of these bills with smiles and hugs all the way around. What is wrong with this picture? The vile and viscious acts conducted by these religious pedophiles are the same acts conducted by homosexual consenting adults except for one big difference. In the case of child sexual abuse, these homosexual acts are performed by an adult and a non-consenting clueless, terrified and victimized child.
So to the Agudah, the biggest and most respected religious leader of all American Jewry, why are you not stepping up to the plate to support the Markey bill, which would give the utmost support and opportunity for healing and closure to the thousands of Jewish and other religious child victims of clergy and other authoritative figures in a child’s life?
Please join all caring individuals on the March on Albany, April 21 in unity and in support of the Markey bill. For more information check out http://www.jewishadvocates.com
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS SHOULD DO MORE TO PROTECT CHILDREN
It is outrageous to read that the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Jewish Community are pooling their resources, not to better protect children and give all victim/survivors of childhood sexual abuse access to justice, but rather to keep inadequate and discriminatory laws on the books which give more protection to sexual predators than to their victims.
Such an action certainly fails the test of morality!
The sexual abuse of a minor is an egregious sin, a human tragedy and a major social problem that demands comprehensive solutions but, most importantly, it is a crime committed against the innocent.
It has been accurately described by Cardinal William Keeler, the former archbishop of Baltimore, Maryland, as murder of the soul and the egregious nature of such crimes demands that there should be no statutes of limitation, period.
Childhood sexual abuse is a major epidemic going on in our country, a pandemic if one considers it in its worldwide proportions so it is hard to believe, in light of recent statements in this newspaper, that we continue to have churchmen representing various religious denominations who actually oppose the removal of statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children.
It is unconscionable that any synogogue, church or sect would hold fast to a belief that sexual predators and abusers should not be held accountable along with their enablers and that they would support the present accommodation in law that gives more protection to individuals who have been accused of the sexual abuse of children than to the victims themselves.
Window legislation, as it relates to civil statutes, is the single most important factor in holding sexual predators and any enabling institutions or individuals, if they exist, accountable whether they are religious denominations, hospitals, schools or scouts.
In the case of New York, a one year civil window just to gain access to the courts is the barest of minimums and yet religious leaders oppose it.
How can the Catholic dioceses of New York state deny the rightfulness of extending statutes of limitation in regard to the protection of children?
This is not a matter belonging to what our church calls the “deposit of faith,” and leaving aside the matter of mortal sin for the moment, the sexual abuse of children is a matter of criminal behavior, not to be relegated to the venial status of a lesser weakness.
On the basis of what is known today about the obstacles impeding a victim’s ability in coming forward, present laws covering the sexual abuse of children are totally inadequate.
Why isn’t the archdiocese distributing postcards for the members of the Catholic community to sign and send to their legislators in Albany to support the complete removal of statutes of limitation going forward in regard to the sexual abuse of children, criminally and civilly?
Why isn’t the New York Catholic Conference lobbying to protect children as would befit the Holy See’s signatory status to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?
Window legislation is not “anti” any particular religion or institution but it is anti-rapist and child molester. It forces records, if they exist and have not been destroyed, to be made available in a court of justice and hopefully into the public venue as well.
We know that pedophiles, rapists, molesters and child abusers come from all walks of life and that the sexual abuse of children happens primarily in the home so it is patently unconscionable for religious denominations and their leadership to protect and enable sexual predators by refusing to support changes in the laws that would hold both the perpetrators and their enablers accountable.
No child ever deserves to be raped, sodomized, molested, abused or trafficked across state lines or international borders for purposes of sexual exploitation.
Such acts, especially when committed by a parent, family member, doctor, teacher, trusted minister, rabbi, imam or priest are crimes and the perpetrators should be treated as the criminals they are.
The Orthodox Jews and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church should be coming together to better protect our children from these vicious individuals and those who may have protected them.
Is it about money?
The outrageous claim that Assemblywoman Margaret M. Markey’s bill A2596, known as the Child Victims Act, is “designed to bankrupt the Catholic Church,” as claimed by Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference is simply beyond the pale.
Such disinformation promulgated by the institutional church is as disingenuous as it is outrageous.
One needs to keep in mind that in 2007 the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to a 660 million dollar settlement, the church’s largest payout to victim/survivors of clergy sexual abuse while also paying millions of dollars to their own lawyers, lobbyists and to the California Catholic Conference to oppose settling.
At the same time the archdiocese built and paid for a magnificent new cathedral that any city in the world would be proud to showcase and they did it without ever mentioning bankruptcy.
In the New Testament Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus says, “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea,” (18:16).
Where is it found that Jesus said justice for a child was dependent on the price tag?
Nowhere!
Neither in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament.
No, the real issue is not money.
The real issue was and still is about the exercise of power and the abuse of that power no matter the religious denominations concerned.
The Catholic bishops of the United States, for example, promised accountability and transparency in 2002 but have they been conscientious in delivering on that promise?
Investigations and grand jury reports in a number of major jurisdictions have shown that the answer is a resounding “No.”
Even the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has yet to release priests’ files which were part of their 2007 settlement and was ordered by the courts.
In all good conscience, I would strongly encourage our brothers and sisters of the Jewish faith along with the faithful Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, and indeed all the good and decent people of the state of New York to support criminal and civil laws that are as strong as possible in holding accountable the sexual predators of our children and any individuals or institutions who were complicit in their protection.
The proposed New York legislation (A2596 and S2568) sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret M. Markey, D-Queens and Senator Tom Duane, D-Manhattan, is both comprehensive and a solution that will go far in helping to help reduce childhood sexual abuse.
__________________
Sister Turlish is a Delaware educator and victims’ advocate who testified before the Delaware Senate and House Judiciary Committees in support of Delaware’s 2007 Child Victims Law.
She is on the National Representative Council of Voice of the Faithful and on the Board of Directors for the Delaware Association for Children of Alcholics.
E-mail Sister Maureen Paul Turlish at: maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
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