Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Attorneys representing 550 survivors across New York State have announced that the Buffalo Diocese and the Boy Scouts of America have been served with lawsuits and formal discovery requests….starting with decades worth of evidence on child sex abusers, including the Catholic Church’s “secret files” and the Boy Scouts’ “ineligible volunteer files.”
“For decades, institutions like the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts have refused to acknowledge the abuse they allowed to occur under their watch, while hiding their ‘secret files’ behind lock and key. But thanks to the CVA, survivors finally have the right and the power to get at the truth. Starting today, these institutions are on notice – they can try to deny their complicity, but the real and unvarnished story will come out in court,” said the Marsh Law Firm’s Jennifer Freeman, a sexual abuse attorney who represents hundreds who are filing suit under New York’s new law.
“Institutions that harbored child sex abusers have had countless opportunities to come clean and release their ‘secret files’ on abusers within their ranks. They failed to do so, choosing instead to deny justice and resolution to survivors. By serving these lawsuits and beginning the discovery process, we’ll finally be able to access the files that hold the key to holding these institutions accountable,” said Michael Pfau of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC, a sexual abuse attorney who has represented hundreds of sexual abuse survivors around the country and who is helping hundreds more in New York.