Attorneys support survivors act

Representatives of adult victims of sex abuse push for one-year look-back window

Attorneys who represent victims of Harvey Weinstein and those who say they were victimized by former Olympian Conrad Mainwaring are urging the state Assembly to pass legislation to allow adults a one-year window to file lawsuits that are barred under current statutes of limitations.

In a letter addressed to members of the state Legislature, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Assembly Judiciary Chair Charles D. Lavine, attorneys for the sexual assault survivors of Weinstein and alleged victims of Mainwaring pushed for the advancement of the Adult Survivors Act.

The legislation would grant a one-year look-back window for survivors to sue their abusers or responsible institutions, similar to the Child Victims Act.

Prominent attorneys Gloria Allred and Carrie Goldberg added their names to the letter, along with the signatures of other female legal practitioners.

“It’s not a coincidence that so many women lawyers like us have represented so many victims-survivors,” the letter states. “Nearly 1 in 5 women have experienced a completed or attempted rape during their lifetime.”

The attorneys blamed lax state laws for allowing assailants to evade repercussions for so many years, emphasizing that the Child Victims Act, which extended the state’s statute of limitations for civil claims until the age of 55 and criminal charges until the age of 28, became one of the key options for restitution offered to survivors.

“You also acknowledged what we all now know to be true,” the letter continues. “Until the recent changes made by the Legislature, the statute of limitations was artificially low and not in line with what we understand about the science of trauma.

“... The next logical step in correcting that historic injustice is to let victims, who were over the age of 18 at the time of their abuse prior to 2019 and are now outside the statute of limitations, come forward.”

Last month, the state Senate passed the Adult Survivors Act unanimously. It was the second time that the legislation made it through the chamber.

Kat Thomas, who represented victims of Mainwaring, a former Olympian and running coach, said it’s important that the Legislature passes the bill this session so that survivors are able to move on, in some form, from the harm that’s been done.

In 2019, ESPN reported that Mainwaring had molested young men at several camps and universities. He faces charges in Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

“The victim is the one that keeps having to pay for the damage,” she said. “All of the payment is on the victim when we don’t hold the others accountable. They’re the ones paying for their therapy.

“We know that sexual violence is parasitic on a community. The people that suffer sexual violence aren’t able to contribute to society the same way. It helps everyone when we heal. It helps everyone when we allow survivors to take back their power and hold their perpetrators or the institution that turned a blind eye accountable.

“It shouldn’t be the victim that continues to pay for the damage.”