Mulhearn Law
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The Genesis of Mr. Mulhearn's Involvement in Sex Abuse Cases
In 2009, Mr. Mulhearn filed suit against his former high school, Poly Prep in Brooklyn, on behalf of his fellow alumni, John Joseph Paggioli, James Zimmerman, David Hiltbrand, Philip Culhane, and eight others, for sexual abuse claims related to the vicious sexual assaults of Phil Foglietta, Poly Prep’s legendary football coach (from 1966 through 1991) who died in 1998.
Prior to this landmark federal case, Zimmerman v. Poly Prep, in 2005, Mr. Paggioli had filed a similar suit against Poly Prep, Paggioli v. Poly Prep in Kings County Supreme Court, but that case was dismissed on statute of limitations grounds as “simply too old.”
In the Poly Prep case, Mr. Mulhearn devised a creative strategy to circumvent the draconian New York statute of limitations which, for decades, had protected schools and other institutions that facilitated and covered up the sexual abuse of children under their care from facing any legal culpability for their acts and/or inaction. The Federal District Court in Brooklyn credited Mr. Mulhearn’s use of Civil RICO (on a limited basis) and equitable estoppel and denied Poly Prep’s motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ Complaint on timeliness grounds. Shortly thereafter, in December 2012, Poly Prep settled all twelve claims.
The Poly Prep case, which drew substantial national and local media attention, highlighted the gross unfairness of the then-existing New York law which protected institutions from facing any consequences for facilitating the sexual abuse of children, even if an institution engaged in a long-term conspiracy and cover-up of that abuse and protected known sexual predators to the extreme detriment of the many children under its care and supervision.
Since 2013, Mr. Mulhearn has successfully represented dozens of childhood sex abuse survivors in claims against private New York high schools (including Horace Mann and The Emma Willard School), public high schools (such Adlai Stevenson High School in The Bronx), and religious institutions (notably, The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York).
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Current Sex Abuse Litigation
On June 27, 2022, Mr. Mulhearn filed a Title IX claim on behalf of “Jane Doe” against Yeshiva University Jane Doe Filed Complaint and its General Counsel, Title IX Coordinator, and attorneys, for an alleged coverup of her rape by a fellow Yeshiva University student that took place in January 2021. The Complaint (attached hereto) was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and includes claims under Title IX, the New York City Human Rights Law, and the New York State Human Rights Law. Plaintiff asserts that the Yeshiva University Defendants conducted a sham investigation with a preordained conclusion of her Title IX Complaint. KTM Statement
In July 2021, Mr. Mulhearn filed a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of Francis Austin. Mr. Austin’s suit against Fordham University, and several key Fordham administrators, alleges that Fordham retaliated against Mr. Austin—a gay participant in Fordham’s NROTC Program with the U.S. Navy—after he alleged that a fellow NROTC student raped him in his dormitory room. Mr. Austin alleged that Fordham, amongst other retaliatory actions, expelled him from Fordham’s NROTC Program after manufacturing a fake psychological report from his former high school.
Mr. Mulhearn is also again litigating against Poly Prep for its gross misconduct in failing to adequately supervise or terminate the employment of Phil Foglietta, its football coach, despite receiving ample knowledge, from numerous sources, that Foglietta was a known child molester. Mr. Mulhearn represents Gray Montague and four anonymous plaintiffs, each of whom attended Poly Prep in the late 1970s or early 1980s, in this case.
Mr. Mulhearn is now litigating Child Victims Act claims of more than 75 survivors. He is currently the lead attorney in Twersky v. Yeshiva University, a case pending in the New York County Supreme Court. In that case, Mr. Mulhearn, along with a team of experienced, nationally recognized attorneys, represents 47 men who allege that as children they were sexually abused by various teachers and administrators (including the Principal) at the Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan (from the 1960s through the 1990s). This is one of the largest Child Victims Act cases now pending in the New York courts.
Mr. Mulhearn is also the lead attorney in Doe v. Archdiocese of Newark, an important case filed in September 2020 in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, in which he describes at length the Roman Catholic Church’s deficient policies and practices which made it extraordinarily difficult for victims to obtain justice against sexually abusive Roman Catholic bishops. In this case, John Doe alleges that he was repeatedly sexually abused in the 1980s by former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick. Mr. McCarrick remains the only cardinal defrocked by the Catholic Church for childhood sexual abuse.
Kevin Mulhearn also represents numerous victims in active cases against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, The Episcopal Diocese of New York, The Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, The Clarkstown Central School District, The Mount Pleasant Central School District, and several individuals.
The Adult Survivers Act
IMPORTANT NOTE:
On May 24 2022 New York State enacted the Adult Survivors Act and created a one-year window (from November 22, 2022 to November 22, 2023) for adult victims (over 18) of rape or sexual assault in New York to assert legal claims in New York courts against their assailants and/or institutional facilitators, no matter how long ago the sexual assault took place.
This revival statute, which temporarily suspends all existing statutes of limitation, expires on November 22, 2023. All revived rape, sexual assault, or sexual abuse claims must, therefore, be filed on or before November 22, 2023, or they will be lost forever.
The Child Victims Act becomes law and revives previously time-barred sex abuse claims.
In 2016, the Honorable Margaret A. Markey, New York State Assemblywoman and a trailblazer for statute of limitations reform in New York, praised Kevin Mulhearn as follows: “Kevin [Mulhearn] speaks eloquently about the terrible plight of those he describes as ‘lost boys’ and about the need to get justice for the unspeakable crimes against them. I am proud [that] he is also working diligently with me and others to help change the law in New York State so that abusers and those who hide them are held accountable.”
In 2019, the New York State Legislature passed The Child Victims Act, which substantially modified the statute of limitations law in New York for childhood sex abuse cases, and created a one year window for abuse survivors whose claims were previously time-barred (including those whose claims were previously dismissed in earlier actions as untimely) to file suit against both their abusers and their abusers’ enablers and facilitators. (In July, 2020, Governor Cuomo extended that window for an additional year; it now remains open until August 13, 2021).
Kevin T. Mulhearn, P.C.
If you or someone you know was a victim of childhood sexual abuse in New York State, at any time,
feel free to contact Kevin T. Mulhearn, Esq. for a FREE CONSULTATION.
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