Child sexual abuse in New York City religious institutions

Child sexual abuse in New York City religious institutions has presaged or echoed that which has occurred and emerged elsewhere in the United States and Europe. The child sexual abuse cases documented here, so far, reach back to the 1970s but have mostly come to light since 1990.

This is a listing, and account, of notable cases; it is not necessarily a complete listing for New York City:

Two 2011 basketball-program cases

Two cases in 2011 – those of Bob Oliva and Ernie Lorch – have both centered in highly ranked NYC youth basketball programs sponsored by churches of different denominations. Both cases have also moved to a criminal stage due to actions which have been alleged to, or admitted to, have happened in Massachusetts. As with many abuse cases, the fairly recent accusations addressed events which happened many years ago. However, Massachusetts law froze the statute of limitations when the victims left that state and allowed the cases, thence, to be brought many years later. In the open case – Lorch's – the statute of limitations provision is being challenged in court.

Bob Oliva

In early 2011, long-time basketball coach at Christ The King Regional High School Bob Oliva was accused of two cases of child sexual abuse.[1] He pleaded guilty under a plea deal to one of them, brought in Massachusetts on behalf of former player. Oliva cannot coach any longer and he will have to wear a monitoring device to track his movements while he serves five years' probation.[1] The victim in the Massachusetts case was molested during a trip to Massachusetts in 1976 when he was 14. Oliva was a friend of his family. A news report a year after the conviction said that the abuse victim in the case had been "deeply moved by the number of people who offered him support when Oliva and Christ the King officials were dismissing him as a shakedown artist. 'I realized I have real friends'", he said. "Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball hugged [him] and told him it was one of the greatest victim statement's she's ever heard," the report added.[2]

In a related action, the victim in the Massachusetts case has a NY civil action for $20 million against Oliva. In February 2012, the Queens judge refused an Oliva motion to dismiss the case so trial was expected later in the year.[3] In December 2012, it was reported that Oliva's probation officer reminded him not to attend when Christ the King competed in the Chick-Fil-A Classic in South Carolina – where Oliva now lives – or any other high school competition. At the time, an Oliva friend told the reporter that Oliva had completed sex offender treatment.[4]

Ernie Lorch

Ernie Lorch, a Middlebury College basketball player, was from 1961 the founding coach of the Riverside Hawks youth basketball team sponsored by the Riverside Church.[5] The church is interdenominational (American Baptist and United Church of Christ) and located on the Upper West Side. Lorch resigned after charges of child sexual abuse were leveled and District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau began investigating in 2002.[6]

Under the "frozen statute of limitations" provision, Lorch was arrested by a fugitive task force in 2010 at a convalescent home in Ardsley, New York, said U.S. Marshal Daniel Spellacy in Springfield, Mass. Lorch was "accused of sexually abusing the then-17-year-old victim when his Riverside Hawks team traveled from Manhattan to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst for a tournament between March 1977 and April 1978. Lorch also tried to rape the player, the indictment said."[7] As of March, 2011, Lorch's attorney was asserting his client suffered from dementia and diabetes and was wheelchair-bound; and the lawyer was effecting other efforts to prevent extradition, including habeas corpus and a challenge to the "frozen statute of limitations" provision.[8] Several New York men told the Daily News after the 2010 arrest "that they had been paid into the millions of dollars to remain silent about alleged abuse".[9]

Lorch successfully resisted extradition in November 2011,[10] but died in May 2012.[9]

Satmar Hasidic and Haredi communities
Main article: Sexual abuse cases in Brooklyn's Haredi community

Brooklyn is home to the largest Haredi community outside Israel, and Haredim make up about a quarter million of New York City's population, and most of them live in Brooklyn.[11] According to scholars, the rate of sex abuse within Haredi communities is roughly the same as anywhere else.[11] In many abuse cases, though, victims have not come forward with accusations because of stigmatization from the community, and when they did come forward, the matter generally stayed within the community rather than being reported to the police and forming part of crime statistics.[11] Sexual abuse within the community is often not reported to police. Rather than reporting to police, Haredim may take a case of sexual abuse to the shomrim, a local Jewish street patrol. The shomrim keep the names of suspected child molesters on file, but do not share them with law enforcement or take other measures to end abuse, and sometimes also try to discourage people from taking a case to the police.[12]

Many feel that to report a Jew to non-Jewish authorities constitutes the religious crime of mesirah.[11][12] Samuel Heilman, a professor of Jewish studies at Queens College, says that telling outside police would betray the Jewish community.[13] Agudath Israel of America, an ultra-Orthodox organization, has stated that observant Jews should not report allegations to law enforcement without first consulting with a rabbi.[11][12] However, other rabbis, including a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinic court in Crown Heights and Yosef Blau, disagree and encourage reporting abusers to police, stating that the ban on mesirah does not apply.[11][14]

Other notable cases

Bruce Ritter, Covenant House
Main articles: Bruce Ritter and Covenant House § Scandal

Father Bruce Ritter, founder of Covenant House in Manhattan, was forced to resign in 1990 after accusations that he had engaged in financial improprieties and had engaged in sexual relations with several youth in the care of the charity.[15]

Yeshiva University high school

In December 2012, the President of the Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva University apologized over allegations that two rabbis at the college's high school campus abused boys there in the late 1970s and early ’80s.[16][17] A later December report in The Forward focused on one Yeshiva University High School for Boys official, Rabbi George Finkelstein, and spoke "to 14 men who sa[id] that Finkelstein abused them while he was employed at [YUHSB] ... from 1968 to 1995". The report also concluded that YU and the governing Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America had known about accusations against Finkelstein for a decade or longer. In addition, "[f]rom the mid 1980s until today ... Y.U. officials and RCA rabbis have dismissed claims or kept them quiet" as Finkelstein went on to be dean of a Florida day school and then to the Jerusalem Great Synagogue.[18] In July 2013, Chancellor Norman Lamm announced his retirement after more than 60 years at the University, and apologized for not responding more assertively when students at Yeshiva University High School for Boys said that two rabbis there had sexually abused them.[19]

See also

References
  1. Zengerle, Jason, "The Sins of the Coach", New York magazine, March 20, 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
  2. O'Keeffe, Michael, "One year after Bob Oliva pleaded guilty to sex-abuse charges, victim recalls finding strength to face abuser in court", New York Daily News, April 4, 2012. The Victim Statement – "Oliva, Bob – Impact Statement.pdf" – linked to via docs.google. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  3. O'Keeffe, Michael, "Judge rejects Oliva's motion to dismiss suit", New York Daily News, February 15, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  4. O'Keeffe, Michael, "Disgraced ex Christ the King coach Bob Oliva barred from attending Chick-Fil-A Classic", New York Daily News, December 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-28.
  5. Toperoff, Sam, "A Pillar And Backboard Of The Riverside Church", Sports Illustrated, December 22, 1986. Retrieved 2020-03-22.
  6. O'Keeffe, Michael, "Controversial Ernie Lorch leaves Riverside Church scrambling to salvage its once-proud hoop program", New York Daily News, April 25, 2004. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
  7. "Prominent NY youth coach arrested", Associated Press via ESPN, updated November 4, 2010 4:20 PM EST. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
  8. O'Keeffe, Michael, "Founder of Riverside Church hoops, Ernest Lorch, indicted on sex abuse charges, avoids extradition", New York Daily News, March 02, 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
  9. "Riverside AAU czar Ernie Lorch dies", New York State Sportswriters blog, May 16, 2012. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
  10. O'Keeffe, Michael, "Lorch escapes extradition on sex abuse charges", New York Daily News, November 18, 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  11. Otterman, Sharon; Rivera, Ray (May 9, 2012). "Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sexual Abuse". The New York Times.
  12. Pinto, Nick (September 7, 2011). "The Shomrim: Gotham's Crusaders". The Village Voice.
  13. Long, Colleen (June 11, 2012). "Orthodox NYC counselor on trial in sex abuse case". AP.
  14. "Panel Assembles To Discuss Sex Abuse Cases In Brooklyn".
  15. Wosh, Peter J., Covenant House: Journey of a Faith-Based Charity, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8122-3831-1.
  16. Blau, Reuven, and Rachel Monahan, "Yeshiva University president apologizes for '70s and '80s molest allegations", New York Daily News, December 13, 2012.
  17. Yee, Vivian (2012-12-14). "Report of '80s Sexual Abuse Rattles Yeshiva Campus". The New York Times.
  18. Berger, Paul, (Jane Eisner, ed.), "Yeshiva Officials, Rabbis Knew of Alleged Abuse", The Forward, December 20, 2012 (issue of December 28, 2012). Via Yerachmiel Lopin's Frum Follies blog. Retrieved 2012-12-25.
  19. Kaminer, Ariel (2013-07-01). "In a Letter Announcing His Retirement, Yeshiva University Chancellor Apologizes for Sexual Abuse Scandal". The New York Times.
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