Supported by those firms’ generous donations, Hamilton and her Child USA have barnstormed across the country, convincing many state legislators to lift the statute of limitations (SOL) on child sex abuse cases. The legislation allows adults to file civil claims against their abuser—be it a relative, a camp counselor, Scout leader, priest, a babysitter, or anyone else—decades after the alleged offense.
As a result of the SOL legislation, supporting law firms wind up with referrals of adults looking for justice, compensation or simply closure with acknowledgment of what they went through.
Yet, for every posed picture of Hamilton with a state legislator surrounded by adult victims of every gender and skin tone celebrating new laws, there is a host of victims who cry foul and claim that Hamilton misled them when she said her proposed legislation would benefit them all, but in fact it did not.
Some victims, though far from all, do get to file civil claims about the abuse that happened to them in their childhood. That result alone would make Marci Hamilton stand out, seemingly righting wrongs from decades past.
Yet, for every posed picture of Hamilton with a state legislator surrounded by adult victims of every gender and skin tone celebrating new laws, there is a host of victims who cry foul and claim that Hamilton misled them when she said her proposed legislation would benefit them all, but in fact it did not.
In nearly every state where the SOL has been extended or eliminated, or a “lookback window” of one or more years has been passed that gives victims a chance to file suit, a majority of claims are filed against “deep-pocket” institutions, which has often resulted in large settlements—and millions of dollars in the attorneys’ cut from the proceeds.
A number of critics of Hamilton, including legislators and victims’ advocates, say there is one major difference with Hamilton that affects her agenda: Unlike hard-working victim advocates around the country, most of whom are volunteers, Hamilton is not herself a victim of abuse.
“If you’re not a victim you can’t even imagine what that’s like for someone to do that to you,” said one New York victims’ advocate, who asked to remain anonymous. “And to do it repeatedly.”
“She’s a lawyer and she is not a victim’s advocate…for the majority of victims, because she has done nothing to see that victims without an institution, or victims without a rich abuser, get justice.”
—Gary Greenberg, New York activist and abuse survivor
“She’s not a victim…I can’t repeat that enough because, you know, if you’re not a victim, you just can’t know,” said another. “They say they can know what you’re going through, but they really don’t know.”
“She can raise the money,” said Jason, a survivor who was abused while in a youth program. “[She’s] connected to the legal side of things, getting laws changed to help promote more lawsuits. The legal firms fund the nonprofit [Child USA].”
New York activist and abuse survivor Gary Greenberg is among the individuals most familiar with Hamilton and her campaign. “She’s a lawyer and she is not a victim’s advocate…for the majority of victims,” he said, “because she has done nothing to see that victims without an institution, or victims without a rich abuser, get justice.”
Greenberg served as a member of the Albany County legislature and ran for the New York state senate. He also started his own political action committee for this cause, with his own money. He runs it voluntarily, without drawing a salary.
“Marci pays herself,” he said. “I didn’t get paid one penny.”
A Child Victims Act (CVA) to open a lookback window had been debated for years in New York. One face in Hamilton’s campaign was victim-turned-lawyer Michael Dolce, a leading figure of the drive for SOL reform. In April 2023, Dolce was arrested for possession of child pornography and let go from Cohen Milstein Sellers and Tell, where he’d led their sex abuse cases.
An original version of the New York CVA included a $300-million fund that would have allowed compensation of victims not tied to substantial institutions. “But every year, it was the same thing, you know, the victims would come up here (in support) and fight for it, then go home all disappointed, and then come back the next year,” said Greenberg.
He believes Hamilton wanted the $300 million fund removed because the law firms that support her organization preferred to sue the deep-pocket defendants, which have greater resources.
Finally, after years of what he and others described as Hamilton’s once-a-year rallies that produced no results, he acted on his own.
“In 2016, I came up with the idea to form a political action committee: Fighting for Children PAC,” Greenberg told Freedom. “I put hundreds of thousands of dollars of my own money into it and I raised money.
“And what I did is, I went into individual districts where senators were refusing to support the Child Victims Act, and let their constituents know,” Greenberg said. “I held 30 rallies across the state, and we flipped the Senate…and that’s what passed the Child Victims Act.”
[B]y the final day of the two-year window in August 2021, nearly 11,000 suits had been filed—most of them against deep-pocket defendants. Four firms—all significant contributors to Child USA—filed nearly half of those cases. Despite the assignment of extra judges and court staff, there has been little progress in the lawsuits.
Greenberg said he helped write the Act, along with state Senator Catherine Young. But the CVA bill passed in 2019 without the $300-million fund. That still leaves New York victims of abuse by family members, neighbors, and other noninstitutional perpetrators without a clear path to be heard and compensated.
The one-year lookback window opened by the CVA was extended a second year, and by the final day of the two-year window in August 2021, nearly 11,000 suits had been filed—most of them against deep-pocket defendants.
Four firms—all significant contributors to Child USA—filed nearly half of those cases.
Despite the assignment of extra judges and court staff, there has been little progress in the lawsuits.
“I’ve had clients who died,” attorney Michael Dowd, who has about 200 CVA cases in the five boroughs, told the New York Post more than a year after the CVA deadline. “This is nuts. Nothing’s happening. No cases are moving.”
Of the small percentage of cases that have since moved, one in Upstate New York settled for $750,000 after the plaintiff was told the defendant, the Archdiocese of Albany, would soon be filing for bankruptcy—which it did, along with four other New York dioceses.
Another case involving a Lutheran pastor in Buffalo, who admitted to abusing a total of eight young teen boys, was settled for $30 million in September 2022. A third case, believed to be the first New York City case to be settled, involved a 10-year-old boy who was abused in a public elementary school for more than three years. The case was settled in October 2022, also for $30 million. In each of those two cases, the law firm handling the case is expected to collect roughly $10 million.
Pennsylvania State Representative Mark Rozzi, who has been involved in the proposal to change the SOL in Pennsylvania and recently had two bills passed in the state House along those lines, said, “I’ve been at many rallies with her in the beginning, and [I was] supportive…but you do at a certain point see that maybe there’s another mission to her organization, and maybe it’s just more about notoriety than actually getting anything done.
“Every time we would have rallies, I would hear from victims about how traumatized they were, that they were re-victimized, and it was just so tough for them,” Rozzi added, stating that as a victim himself he knew that he had to start putting their well-being above anything else. “My whole mission would always be to put victims first.”
As Hamilton continued to push for SOL changes in her home state, Rozzi said, “She would still come to the capital, try to bring as many victims as possible.… It was all about exposing Child USA. It’s just, you know, she’s more about Marci Hamilton than anything else.”
Watch for Part IV of this Investigative Series: “IT’S A ‘FOLLOW THE MONEY’ STORY”
