Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Sexual Abuse

Published on:

Professor Daniel PollackFrom sexual abuse to physical or emotional abuse as well as maltreatment and neglect, child abuse can have various forms. It occurs when a parent or a caregiver causes injury or death to a child because of his or her action or failing to act.

Very often child abuse is discovered and reported by people surrounding the child. Each State has laws requiring “Mandated Reporters” to report concerns of child abuse. In New York, some professionals such as doctors, nurses, social workers, emergency healthcare workers, dentists, medical examiners coroners and other medical professionals are mandated to report any suspicion of child abuse.  Therapists and mental health counselors  as well as anyone working in the education system as well as police officers and district attorneys and some people working with them such as investigators are mandated to report any suspicion of child abuse.

Sometimes however, mandated reporters hesitate to report suspicion of child abuse. In a recent article, Dr. Michaela A. Medved, MA, TSSLD, CCC-SLP, ClinScD, a Clinical Assistant Professor at Yeshiva University’s Katz School of Science and Health in New York City and Daniel Pollack, MSW, Esq., a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City  explains why some mandated reporters hesitate in reporting their suspicions. They found in a previous study that reporters are more reluctant to report their concerns when the abuse is mild or less apparent or experienced by children with disabilities.

Published on:

Pollack and ReiterProtecting children from sexual abuse, mistreatment, emotional abuse or neglect is an every day combat that we should all join as a Nation.

In a recent article, Daniel Pollack,  an attorney and professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City and Elisa Reiter,an attorney, Board Certified in Family Law and Child Welfare Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, look back at 2020 and how the pandemic affected children suffering abuse.

School as a support to abused children

Published on:

the NY school where child sexual abuse took placeThe principal of an elementary school sexually abused students for years in Greece Town, Upstate New York.

51 year old, Kirk Ashton, the principal at Northwood Elementary School, in Greece Town, is accused of sexually abusing 9 boys between the age of 9 and 12 year old. Kirk has been a principal at the school since 2004 and the abuse went on for years.

The principal is facing 6 counts of first degree sexual abuse, 5 counts of second degree sexual abuse and 9 counts of endangering the welfare of a child

Published on:

A nyc school teacher was arrested for having sex with an underaged victim. 31 year old Zeshaan Naqvi is a teacher at The Young Women’s Leadership School in Jamaica, Queens, a girl only NYC public school serving more than 500 girls in Grades 6 through 12.

The teacher knew that the victim was underage

The sexual predator who lives in Queens Village in NYC met his victim, a teenage girl, online and knew she was underage. They chatted online for 3 months after which the teacher booked a flight ticket to Tampa and a hotel room on Falkenburg Road in Tampa, FL.

Published on:

Tottenvill high schoolA New York City teacher who was caught masturbating on a video conference call is under investigation  according to the NY Daily News. The name of the teacher was not revealed. The News only mentioned that the teacher works at Tottenville High School on the South Shore of Staten Island.

The NYPD received a complaint on Monday afternoon that the teacher appeared naked and masturbating during a video conference call. The NYPD did not indicate if the teacher exposed himself intentionally and if students were involved in the video conference call.

The NYC school has a history of child abuse

Published on:

Theodore_Cardinal_McCarrickAn in-depth Vatican report about Cardinal McCarrick’s sexual misconduct with children and young adults indicates that when pope John Paul II appointed him to Washington in 2000 and created him cardinal in early 2001, he was aware of the following child sexual abuse allegations against McCarrick:

  • A priest complaint that McCarrick tried to engage in sexual activity with him in the summer of 1987 when McCarrick was Archbishop of Newark . The same priest who at that time was part of the Diocese of Metuchen also alleged that he saw McCarrick engaging in sexual activity with another priest in June 1987
  • Anonymous letters accusing McCarrick of pedophilia with his nephews were sent to multiple cardinals in the US and to the the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Apostolic Nuncio
Published on:

John Russel, a New Yorker who has been accused several times of sexually abusing underage girls was arrested last July after an underage Asian-American victim came forward and alleged that the 59 year old man had engaged in oral sex and intercourse with her and a criminal complaint charges him with two felony counts of sexual conduct against a child after he asked the victim to take pictures and record videos of him engaging with another underage girl.

Russell who had a brief career as an actor back in the 80ies and landed parts in Law & Order and a few movies had been a City College of New York researcher. He obviously lost his job however one might question why this man was ever hired to work around teenagers as his history of sexually abusing children goes back to July 1999.

At this time, Russel had moved to a house in Bethel, Vermont, with his wife and two kids.  While they were looking for a baby-sitter, Russel brought a 14 year old girl to his house so she supposedly would get familiar with the place. When she was there Russel undressed her and had sex with her. After they finished he told the girl that if she mentioned what happen between them to anyone he would deny it all and that he would never go to jail because he had children.

Published on:

Jerry Harris, one of the stars of the Netflix show “Cheer” has been arrested after he was charged with producing child pornography.  The 21 year old man admitted to the FBI that he had been interacting with several minors on Snapchat asking them to send him pictures and videos of their genitals.

Jerry Harris is also the subject of a lawsuit which was filed 3 days ago on behalf of two twin boys. According to the complaint, Jerry sent them sexually explicit pictures of himself and tried to corner one of them in a bathroom and  asked him to perform oral sex on him.

Jerry Harris became a TV star after the show Netflix “Cheer” started to follow his cheerleading team from Navarro College in Texas in its attempt to win the national title.

Published on:

New York Child sexual abuse lawyer Ben Rubinowitzpeter-blog-headshotHollywood Star Kevin Spacey sexually abused two children when they were only 14 years old. As with most pedophiles, Spacey groomed these children, took advantage of their youth and engaged in abusive sexual acts. Spacey’s conduct was not only improper, but it was a crime. “There is no justification for this conduct. These children were underage and had no ability to consent to Spacey’s sexual advances. Simply put, Spacey engaged in acts of, among other things, rape,” said Ben Rubinowitz who, along with Peter Saghir, has been handling cases of sexual abuse for years. “This action has been brought pursuant to New York’s Child Victims Act, a law that was recently passed allowing victims of sexual abuse to bring civil claims against abusers as well as institutions such as schools, churches and camps.  No matter when the abuse occurred, the law currently allows claims for sexual abuse that were once barred by the statute of limitations to be revived and filed through August 14, 2021,” said Saghir.  A copy of the complaint filed against Spacey can be found here.

Our firm is dedicated to representing victims of sexual abuse

Our goal has always been to make sure that victims of sexual abuse receive the justice to which they are entitled. Children, who are often the targets of sexual predators, are frequently afraid to report the abuse out of embarrassment, humiliation and fear of punishment or retaliation. As a result, these crimes have gone unpunished for years as pedophiles and institutions have been able to hide behind statutes of limitations that prevented lawsuits from being filed. “Now that the law has changed and victims of sexual abuse can bring claims in our civil courts, victims of abuse will finally be able to receive justice,” said Rubinowitz. “Our firm will work tirelessly to make sure victims of sexual abuse receive the justice they have been denied for years.”

Published on:

Hunter college where several students were allegedly sexually assaultedA 62 year old lab technician at a New York City High school is accused of forcibly kissing a student and propositioning another one for sex before he resigned last year. Asumana Randolph, who has been working for 26 years at Hunter College High School was recently charged with endangering the welfare of a child, sexual abuse and forcible touching. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released without bail. His next court hearing is scheduled for November 24.

According to a recent article in the Patch, Randolph, a lab technician and science club adviser, is accused of kissing a student younger than 17 year old on the mouth on multiple occasions and without her consent during the month of February 2019.  Additionally, in October 2018, Randolph propositioned a 17 year old student for sex while the student was in his office.  He told the student that it was not the first time that he had sex with a student. He said that 10 to 15 years ago, he had a relationship with another student and had sexual intercourse at the student’s apartment and that he was looking for a similar relationship.

Randolph was forced to resign in 2019 after the investigation started however his name was still listed on the school’s website until last Friday when the school removed it.