NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A rush of civil lawsuits were filed against high-profile defendants last week, just as the Adult Survivors Act, a lapse in the statute of limitations for adult victims of sexual abuse in New York state, ended Friday.
The Adult Survivors Act was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022, and it temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for people filing civil sexual assault complaints between Nov. 24, 2022 and Nov. 24, 2023.
With the legal deadline bringing the filing period to a close, a flood of suits against public figures last week has been making headlines, including the three-page summons filed against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by his former executive assistant Brittany Commisso Wednesday that allege sexual harassment and unwanted touching.
Rita M. Galvin, Cuomo's attorney, has stated that the accusations are false and that the suit is simply a cash grab by Commisso.
This denial is similar to the response of Sean "Diddy" Combs' team after the media mogul was accused of two more instances of sexual misconduct Thursday, a week after he settled a sexual violence suit with singer Cassie.
A spokesperson for Combs denied the allegations, which include sexual assault and forced drugging, and claimed that the suits are exploitations of the Adult Survivors Act.
Dmitriy Shakhnevich, an adjunct assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told 1010 WINS/WCBS 880 that the rush of suits were filed to beat the deadline, but their motives are hard to pin down.
"It is very hard to decipher the intent behind a lawsuit, but you would have to presume, just simply because if a lawyer filed the lawsuit it must be done in good faith, that there is merit there," Shakhnevich said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams had a suit filed against him Wednesday for an alleged 1993 sexual assault, with the plaintiff being a woman "the mayor does not know," according to a City Hall spokesperson. The summons lack information detailing the nature of the alleged crime.
Jaime Foxx and Axl Rose are among other high-profile figures who have had suits filed against them in the last week.
"That doesn't necessarily mean that every plaintiff wants to go to trial or you know so on and so forth, but certainly you have to attribute the volume coming in to the statute that is running," Shakhnevich said.
Despite the big names involved in suits filed in the act's last week, the majority of the 2,500 lawsuits filed in the year-long lapse in statute of limitations were filed against New York state, New York City and local counties and allege abuse in state prisons and local jails.
