Published February 20, 2025
Late last month, over 100 juvenile detainees filed new lawsuits alleging they endured sexual abuse in city-run detention centers.
The new wave of complaints brings the total number of alleged assaults in these facilities to over 500 cases. The Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, passed in 2022, has made these lawsuits possible.
The act, spearheaded by Manhattan Councilmember Carlina Rivera, opened a two-year window for victims to report claims of sexual assault, with no statute of limitations.
That window closes at the end of this month, after which a nine-year statute of limitations will apply.
Rivera, who represents the East Village, Gramercy Park and the Lower East Side, alongside attorney Jerome Block, a partner at Levy Konigsberg, the firm representing the victims, joined “Inside City Hall” Thursday to discuss the new lawsuits.