Sexual abuse and trauma can have long-lasting impacts on child victims. Recognizing this, new laws in New York have enabled victims who suffered sexual abuse and trauma decades ago to come forward with their concerns and to hold abusers and organizations accountable.

A new lawsuit alleges that a doctor and a coach were responsible for sexually abusing boys at the New York City Boys Club between 1950 and 1980.

Sexual Abuse Stories Make Headlines in NY and Elsewhere

In light of many other news stories coming out in relation to organizations like the Boy Scouts and religious groups, other lawsuits with similar allegations are expected throughout New York in the upcoming year.

That’s due to the opening of a window in which now-adult victims are able to file legal claims related to decades-old abuse under New York’s Child Victims Act. Previous laws cut those victims off from filing a lawsuit and experts believe that the New York courts will be scheduling many mediation sessions and hearings on child abuse lawsuits now brought under the lookback law.

Grown Men Claim They Were Repeatedly Abused inside Boys Club

According to a report by NBC News, the Madison Square Boys Club is the subject of this sexual abuse and trauma lawsuit and the men who have brought forward this litigation claim that they were sexually abused while visiting the center from the 1950s through the 1970s.

The primary basis for abuse claims has to do with an endocrinologist who is accused of inappropriately carrying out annual physical exams on pre-teen and teenage boys.

Other claims in the sexual abuse and trauma lawsuit argue that the coach of the basketball team inappropriately touched them. The allegations are compiled in a recent lawsuit on behalf of 20 different men.

One of those men who has retired recently as a New York City police lieutenant claims that he began experiencing abuse at the club in 1958. According to Time Magazine, he came forward with his abuse claims after learning that Rockefeller University had begun looking into allegations of widespread abuse at that location.

Although the endocrinologist passed away over a decade ago, the victims say they want their claims to be heard. According to the lawsuit, children were required to be examined by the endocrinologist prior to using the club’s swimming pool. The club was originally founded in 1884 and the victims claim that the decades of abuse were hidden by the Madison Square Boys Club.

The Time report says that the organization was intended to be a safe haven for young men from low-income families and the lawsuit argues that instead these young men were subjected to child predators. The lawsuit argues that the Madison Square Boys Club failed to carry out an adequate and appropriate investigation and was responsible for the inadequate supervision of the adults who were perpetrated the abuse.

Many adults struggle to come to terms with aspects of their abuse until many years later. Some in New York might even have grounds for legal action under the Child Victims Act.

If you or someone you know has thought about coming forward as a victim of child sexual abuse and trauma, consulting with an experienced attorney could help you understand your options.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.