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A28 u.s. news
Diasabra 14 augustus 2021

NY let childhood sex abuse victims sue; 9,000 went to court

Ordinarily, courts put dead- survivors wait until the last ly to estimate liability for
lines on suing because of minute because of the diffi- church-related entities in
the difficulty in holding a culty of coming forward. the state. Though Ander-
fair trial over incidents that son, who calls New York the
happened many years ago. And some will not have “main battleground,” expects
Witnesses die or move away. gained the strength to come it to be in the billions of dol-
Records are lost. Memories forward before the window lars.
fade. But lawmakers believed closes, said attorney Mitchell
that, despite those hurdles, Garabedian. The Diocese of Rockville
victims deserved an opportu- Centre on Long Island cited
nity for justice and might feel “A court deadline that’s been the “severe” financial burden
emboldened now to speak up publicized encourages many from litigation when it be-
about things they’ve kept to victims and survivors to came the largest diocese in
themselves for many years. come forward,” Garabedian the United States to declare
said. “But to other victims bankruptcy last October.
New York’s one-year win- and survivors, it’s meaning- Half of New York’s eight Ro-
(AP) — For two years, New countability once thought dow was originally supposed less.” man Catholic dioceses have
York temporarily set aside long lost. to end Aug. 14, 2020, but it filed for bankruptcy, starting
its usual time limit on civil was extended twice amid Some have struggled over with the Diocese of Roches-
lawsuits in order to allow “This has, ironically, been a concerns that the coronavi- whether to publicly expose ter in 2019.
victims of childhood sex- very healing experience for rus pandemic and resulting old wounds.
ual abuse to sue churches, me on a personal level,” said court disruptions were keep- “Whatever financial pain the
hospitals, schools, camps, Carol DuPre, 74, who sued ing survivors from coming “It was not an easy deci- Church suffers as a result of
scout groups and other in- the Roman Catholic dio- forward. sion,” said Donna Ashton, a this crisis pales in compari-
stitutions and people they cese in Rochester, saying she 56-year-old Rochester-area son to the life-altering suf-
hold responsible for en- was molested by a priest as a Barring another extension, woman who filed a lawsuit in fering of survivors,” Dennis
abling pedophiles or turn- teen in the early 1960s as she electronic filings will be ac- June claiming she was abused Poust, executive director of
ing a blind eye to wrong- counted offerings and typed cepted until midnight Sat- as a teen by the musical direc- the New York State Catholic
doing. up bulletins after church ser- urday, according to a state tor at a Baptist church. “You Conference, said in an email.
vices. courts spokesperson. have to unearth and relive the
That window closes Satur- trauma that you had when Poust said bishops are fo-
day, after more than 9,000 She put the events “in a store- The tsunami of litigation sur- you were a young person.” cused now on resolving the
lawsuits were filed, a deluge house in her mind,” but it prised even some of the law- civil claims in a way that sat-
whose impact may be felt for still haunted her for decades. yers who work regularly with She married the man at age isfies those who have been
many years. When the chance came to file alleged abuse victims. 19 after what the lawsuit said harmed while preserving the
a suit, it was an easy decision. was manipulation, grooming church’s charitable, educa-
Four of the state’s Roman “We thought maybe we get and abuse. The church has tional and sacramental min-
Catholic dioceses have filed “The idea of confronting it, one hundred cases or a cou- disputed the allegations. istries.
for bankruptcy partly as a re- talking about it and dealing ple hundred cases and here
sult of litigation unleashed by with it is internally setting we are,” said attorney James “I had children with him and The bankruptcies allow dio-
the state’s Child Victims Act. me free.” Marsh, whose firm has filed I had to make sure that that ceses to consolidate victims’
Thousands of new allega- about 800 cases. “We woe- was OK with them and that lawsuits and negotiate with
tions against priests, teachers, New York is among a num- fully miscalculated the inter- they were OK with me com- the claimants as a single class.
scout leaders and other au- ber of states that have in re- est there.” ing forward with this,” she
thorities have intensified the cent years established win- said. For instance, the Boy Scouts
already harsh light on institu- dows allowing people to sue Plaintiffs’ lawyers said po- of America sought bankrupt-
tions entrusted with caring over childhood abuse no tential clients were still com- Thousands of the cases filed cy protection in February
for children. matter how long ago it took ing forward as the deadline in New York involve reli- 2020 and last month reached
place. Similar windows were neared, some gaining the gious institutions, according an $850 million agreement
And survivors of abuse have opened in New Jersey and strength after seeing stories to court data. with attorneys representing
been given an outlet for their California. of others filing suits. Attor- tens of thousands of victims
trauma and a chance at ac- ney Jeff Anderson said some Experts caution it’s too ear- of child sex abuse.

Death-row inmate sues for pastor's touch during execution

(AP) — A Texas death- congregation of about 200 phy in the Texas execution
row inmate has sued state worshippers, to be present in chamber. Murphy, who is
prison officials to allow the death chamber at his ex- one of the “Texas 7” gang of
his pastor to lay hands on ecution and lay hands on him escaped inmates convicted of
him as he dies from a le- as Ramirez dies. The lawsuit killing a suburban Dallas po-
thal injection. states that Moore has min- lice officer, has not received a
istered to Ramirez for five new execution date.
John Henry Ramirez, 37, is years. Ramirez was condemned for
scheduled to be put to death the 2004 stabbing death of
in the Texas death chamber Officials of the Texas Depart- Pablo Castro, a 45-year-old
on Sept. 8, but his attorneys ment of Criminal Justice, Corpus Christi convenience
said in a federal lawsuit filed which operates the Texas store worker. Authorities
Tuesday in Corpus Christi state prison system, had no say Castro was stabbed af-
that state prison officials had comment, said a department ter a robbery that netted just
denied his request to have his spokesman. $1.25.
pastor lay hands on him as he
dies. The lawsuit cites a 2019 U.S. Ramirez has already had two
Supreme Court order that stays of execution, once in
The lawsuit asked a federal stayed Patrick Murphy’s ex- 2017 so he could get a new
judge to allow Dana Moore, ecution unless the inmate’s attorney and again last Sep-
pastor of the Second Baptist Buddhist spiritual advisor be tember because of the CO-
Church, a Corpus Christi allowed to accompany Mur- VID-19 pandemic.