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

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An 11 year old girl was allegedly sexually abused by a NYC school teacher. 29 year old Daniel Santiago, an elementary school teacher was arrested on Monday and charged with sex abuse and acting in a manner to injure a child under 17. The teacher who worked at the Brooklyn Science and Engineering Academy which shares a building with PS 244 in East Flatbush had been abusing the victim since February this year.

A cousin saw the abuser’s inappropriate messages on the girl’s cell phone

The abuse started on a bus trip. While students were riding the bus, the teacher inappropriately touched the chest of the girl. Then on the same trip but while returning, the teacher sat next to the girl and slipped his hands into her pants to touch her genitalia. He then asked her to touch his genitalia which she did.  The same occurred at the school again. The teacher also sent inappropriate text messages and pictures to the 11 year old student.

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helpYesterday was a historical day for victims of sexual abuse in New York as Governor Cuomo signed the Child Victims Act into Law.  This new law extends what was one of the most restrictive statutes of limitations in the country.  Victims of childhood sexual abuse now have until 55 year old to sue their abuser while before the new law was signed, they only had until 23 year old to do so.  Additionally a one-year “look back” period that will start in 6 months will allow  all sexual abuse victims to sue their abuser even for cases that date from decades ago.

THE NY CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS AT LEAST 480 PRIESTS ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ABUSE BUT VICTIM ADVOCATES BELIEVE THERE ARE FAR MORE

A lot of victims are expected to come forward now that the new law has passed. Any New York school or youth organization that hired a child molester in the past could now be the target of a lawsuit. The New York catholic dioceses may face the most lawsuits.  Among the 8 New York dioceses, 6 of them have publicly listed a total of 249 priests who have been accused of molesting a child. The only two dioceses who haven’t publicly identified sexually abusive priests are the Archdiocese of New York City and the Rockville Centre Diocese.  In 2004  the Archdiocese of New York City announced that it was aware that 45 of its priests had sexually abused children but no names were revealed. The Rockville Centre Diocese also acknowledged that 66 of its priests were accused of sexually assaulted children but again no names were mentioned.  Among the dioceses that published the names of their abusers, Buffalo had the largest list with 80 priests recognized as sexual abusers followed by 57 for Syracuse, 46 for Albany, 30 for Ogdensburg, 23 for Rochester and 13 for Brooklyn.

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Many Jesuits priests accused of sexual abuse worked in NYC high schools according to a list released earlier this month by the Jesuits.  Xavier, Regis, Brooklyn Prep and Fordham Prep  which are among New York’s best catholic schools, all appeared to have hired priests who were identified by the Society of Jesus as having a history of sexual abuse found to be “more likely true than not after investigation.”

Alleged sexual predator was still teaching at Masters School

The allegations are from decades ago and 35 priests mentioned on the list have now passed away.  Others have been removed from ministry or restricted from serving in public roles. Most of them have not been teaching for years. However one of them was still teaching at Masters Schools, a prestigious private school with no religious affiliation located in Dobbs Ferry, Westchester,  just North of New York City.  Up until a few days ago Robert Cornigans lived on campus and was an English teacher there.  Cornigans who left the Jesuits in 1981 was hired by the school in 2004 despite allegations that came out in 2003 that he had abused a child in 1976. After the list was published he was immediately forced to resign and to leave his campus residence. The school sent a letter to the parents and the community to apologize and informed them that they would hire an outside firm to investigate the case.

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helpOn January 28 2019, there was a major development for those who have been victims of sexual abuse as children. Both chambers of the New York State Legislature passed the Child Victims Act, which has been sent to Governor Cuomo for his signature.

The Child Victims Act extends the current statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse that occurred in the state of New York. Under the new law, prosecutors will be able to bring criminal charges against sexual abusers until the victim is 28 years old. The act also allows victims to bring a lawsuit in civil court against their abusers until the age of 55.

In addition, the act allows a one-year window, starting six months from the effective date of the act, for past victims of child sexual abuse to initiate lawsuits against their abusers and the public and private institutions that let the abuse happen. Further, the act eliminates the Notice of Claim requirement for bringing suits against public institutions both prospectively and during the one-year window for past victims.

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New York Personal Injury Attorneys Ben Rubinowitz and Peter SaghirWe are pleased to announce that our partners, NYC Personal Injury Lawyers Ben Rubinowitz and Peter Saghir have obtained a record setting settlement on behalf of four young boys who were sexually abused by a worker at a local catholic church in Brooklyn.  The Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens and a local after school program will pay $27,500,000 which will be divided evenly with each boy receiving $6,875,000.  This is the largest settlement in the country paid by the Catholic Church to an individual survivor of sexual abuse.

Between 2003 and 2009, Angelo Serrano, sexually abused the four young boys who were between the ages of 8 and 12.  Serrano who was 58 years old at the time of his arrest in 2009 was a long time worker at St. Lucy’s St. Patrick’s, a Catholic church in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn.  Serrano served as a CCD teacher at the church and also as the Director of Religious Education.  The abuse which took place over a number of years was perpetrated inside the church and in his apartment which was located in the old school house of the church.

It was revealed during depositions that the priests in the church knew or certainly should have known that Serrano was sexually abusing children.  One priest testified that he witnessed Serrano inappropriately embrace and kiss an eight or nine year old boy on the mouth in the church office.  Despite witnessing this behavior the priest did not report this conduct, document it or even ask the child his name.

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