More than 9,000 childhood sex abuse victims went to court in New York. According to the lawsuits, several of the allegations are against teachers, scout leaders, priests and other authorities.
Carol DuPre sued the Roman Catholic diocese in Rochester three years ago. She said that in the early 1960s, she was molested by a priest when she was a teenager, ABC News reported. The 74-year-old said that the idea of dealing with it, was internally setting her free.
When 13WHAM asked her how the diocese had handled itself after the lawsuit, she replied, "They stalled and stalled and stalled." She thinks that they are dragging it out. In fact, she wonders if they are waiting for the victims to get tired or for some of the older people to die off.
Meanwhile, a spokesman from the diocese said that they were cooperating fully.
In recent years, New York has become one of the US states that have set up windows that let people sue over childhood abuse. The electronic filings were accepted till Saturday. The number of people who turned up surprised some of the lawyers who regularly work with alleged abuse victims.
Attorney James Marsh, whose firm filed around 800 cases, said, “We thought maybe we get one hundred cases or a couple hundred cases and here we are."
For 56-year-old Donna Ashton, who filed a lawsuit in June, it was not an easy decision to publicly talk about the abuse as you have to "relive the trauma." She claimed that she was abused by the musical director at a Baptist church when she was still a teenager.
She was made to marry the abuser when she was 19. She said, “I had children with him and I had to make sure that that was okay with them and that they were okay with me coming forward with this."
As per court data, thousands of the abuse cases that were filed in New York involve religious institutions. The legal action has reportedly been a financial burden on the religious institutions. Many of them filed for bankruptcy, starting with the Diocese of Rochester in 2019.
Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said that whatever financial problems the church suffers due to this, seem less important in comparison to the life-altering suffering of the survivors.
The Boy Scouts of America, which is also hit by several lawsuits, reached an $850 million settlement with child abuse victims in 17 months.
