Lawsuit: Doctor, coach abused boys at what became an original BGC

Two predators were allowed unfettered access to vulnerable children and their repeated sexual abuse was ignored by staff at the thenMadison Square Boys Club, according to 20 plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit filed in New York on Monday.

The 20 men say they were raped and molested by two men at the Kipps Bay clubhouse of the Madison Square Boys Club between 1950 and 1980. The abuse occurred “in plain sight,” of other adults, according to the complaint.

The Madison Square Boys Club was the original Boys Club in New York City and one of the founding members of what eventually became the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

The lawsuit filing follows the publication of Hearst Connecticut Media’s sixmonth investigation into child sex abuse at Boys & Girls Clubs of America affiliates in 30 states. The investigation found 250 people who say they were abused by staff, volunteers and other members and found allegations that adults at multiple clubs did not report abuse.

The lack of oversight allowed basketball coach and gym director, Nicholas Antonucci, known as “Lefty,” and “pool doctor” Dr. Reginald Archibald, among others, to repeatedly sexually abuse boys at the club, the suit alleges.

“Predators were running the institution,” said James Marsh, an attorney whose firm is representing the victims in the case. “People running, funding and directing [the club] were actually the problem. I don't think this was about protecting the institution — I think they were the institution.”

The club — a powerful entity revered and supported by New York City’s elite in its heyday — didn’t just ignore abuse, but purposefully structured the organization to provide vulnerable atrisk youth to predators in positions of power, according to the civil attorneys representing alleged victims.

“We have a number of people who allege they were sexually abused by different people and you get to the point where you start to wonder what the motivation was for the club, given the number of different people who’ve brought allegations over time,” said Seattlebased attorney Jason Amala, who has teamed up with Marsh’s firm on the case. “At this point, we don’t know the full extent of it and that’s one of the things our clients want to figure out.”

Representatives of Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, named as the defendant in the lawsuit, said they could not comment on the specifics of the case.

“We recognize that as an organization — and a society — we have a responsibility to make sure victims of abuse are heard, acknowledged and empowered to heal,” reads a statement from the organization. “The Madison Square Boys and Girls Club applauds the courage of those who have come forward to describe their painful experiences at Madison between 1950 and 1980, which strike at the very core of our organization’s values.”

Abuse by ‘Lefty’

Antonucci is identified in the lawsuit as the man written about on the first page of the 1978 memoir, “The Basketball Diaries,” by Jim Carroll.

“He likes to do funny things to you like put his hand between your legs and pick you up,” Carroll wrote of a man identified as “Coach Lefty” in his nowpublished teenage diary. “When he did this, I got keenly suspicious. I guess I better not tell my mother about it.”

After the news about Archibald broke, multiple alleged victims of the coach came forward, Marsh said.

“Lefty grabbed and fondled boys’ genitals at the Clubhouse — including but not limited to in the gym, locker room, and swimming pool — in open view of other MSBC members and staff,” the complaint says.

Antonucci abused boys in the club, on club trips and on sleepovers he organized, according to the lawsuit, and forced them to perform cruel and embarrassing inappropriate acts in front of other children.

The coach was eventually criminally convicted of sexually abusing children, the complaint says.

Abuse by Archibald

Multiple law firms are representing dozens of victims who say they were abused by Archibald at Rockefeller University Hospital, where the endocrinologist conducted “growth studies” of children he diagnosed with developmental issues from the 1940s through the 1980s.

The new lawsuit filed Monday says many of the plaintiffs were recruited to be Archibald’s patients at the boys club, where he was a volunteer and board member.

All members were required to be “examined” by Archibald, according to the complaint, and he took inappropriate photographs of them, molested them and raped them at the club.

“Members were banned from the Clubhouse until Archibald completed his physical examination of each naked boy and marked their membership cards accordingly,” the lawsuit says. “MSBC staff recruited boys to find other boys whose member cards were not yet marked and bring them to Archibald for a physical examination.”

The club also required kids that participated in each Clear Pool summer camp in Putnam County, New York to be “examined” by Archibald, civil court documents say.

“Archibald’s actions were wellknown at MSBC,” the complaint alleges. “Boys discussed strategies to avoid Archibald’s repeated physical ‘examinations.’”

Around the 1950s, the lawsuit says one boy reported the abuse to the club’s swim director, who told him “not to worry about it.”

Most of the children at the club came from poor families and didn’t have access to medical care, the civil documents say.

“For some, Archibald was the only doctor they ever saw,” the complaint reads. “Many parents were pleased and relieved, believing that MSBC was providing their sons with proper, free medical care.”

There was a grand jury investigation into Archibald’s alleged abuse by the New York County District Attorney’s Office around 1960, according to the lawsuit. It is not known if Madison Boys Club participated in the investigation.

The doctor also brought other men to watch the boys, who were required to swim naked, in the club’s pool, according to the lawsuit.

“Archibald was often accompanied on his voyeuristic perambulations by other men in business attire, watching the naked boys swimming and changing in the locker room,” the complaint says.

The doctor became involved with the Madison Square Boys Club in the 1940s, said Jennifer Freeman, another attorney representing his victims, and continued to participate in its endeavors until the 1960s.

Rockefeller Hospital said the doctor continued working there into the 1980s. He died in 2007.

“For our clients, this is something that hasn't gone away their entire lives,” he said. “They are still impacted by what happened to them today.”

Historical significance of the Madison Square Boys Club

This alleged abuse went unchecked, Marsh said, because of the power of the Madison Square Boys Club.

Founded in 1884, the club formed at a time when most public welfare was only available through philanthropic organizations. At the turn of the century, some of the wealthiest men in America began an endowment to start a clubhouse for troubled boys from the lower East Side of Manhattan. Their goal was to help poor boys grow into middleclass Americans, historical documents show.

“It was seen as an organization that did a lot of good,” Freeman said. “But it had an ugly underside.”

The impressive, expansive building gave disadvantaged children an opportunity to experience activities they never had before for free, Marsh said. There were bowling alleys, two gyms, running tracks, a pool and a roof garden. Kids could take candymaking classes, historical documents show, or learn to debate. There were theatrical shows, costume parties and summer camps.

“Many of these boys were immigrants and had no jobs,” Marsh said. “They grew up in a time and place when kids were getting killed on the street. The club was heaven to them.”

Because of their fond memories of their time at the club, Freeman said many victims feel conflicted about coming forward.

“I think the reason we haven't seen more victims come forward is because whatever horrors they endured at the Boys Club were not as bad as the mean streets they grew up on,” Marsh said.

Many of the victims feel they owe their success and survival to the Madison Square Boys Club, Marsh said. The dire situations of the boys’ lives provided sexual predators an opportunity to manipulate them and groom them for abuse, the attorney added.

“Youth service organizations fill a void in a kid’s life, especially if that child comes from a broken home,” Amala said. “There were very fond memories for a lot people there. But, the flip side is they find out later the organization didn’t protect them.”

Archibald