He is a former altar boy, now in his 30s, who says a small-town parish priest won his trust, sexually abused him, often violently, and left him too ashamed to tell anyone for years.

It is the kind of allegation that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church and other institutions and led to trials, convictions and millions of dollars in civil settlements.

The difference, in this case, is that the former priest, Gary Mercure, cannot be charged or tried in court because his alleged crimes occurred in New York - where state law gives victims of child sex abuse only until they are 23 years old to make a complaint.

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But victims of childhood sexual abuse in New York would be unlikely to receive comparable vindication. Victims of abuse, including those from Syracuse University and the Horace Mann School who allege they were preyed upon sexually, have run into two glaring problems with our laws.

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The New York State Senate today passed the “Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Act” (S5226A), sponsored by Senator Steve Saland (R-I-C, Poughkeepsie), Chairman of the Senate Codes Committee.  The bill creates new, tougher crimes for predators who prey on children over the Internet.

“Sexual abuse against children is despicable and unacceptable,” Senator Saland said.  “With the Internet and other technology, these crimes have increased and become more complex to prosecute.  This bill makes changes to the law and gives law enforcement the tools to track down those who exploit and abuse innocent children.  Enacting the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Act will make significant progress in protecting our children and putting those vile perpetrators behind bars.”

The sexual exploitation of children is a growing issue. It is estimated that there are between 100,000 and 300,000 children sexually exploited annually through prostitution and pornography in the United States.

The Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Act implements aggressive measures to protect children from dangers from Internet predators, child pornography and child sexual abuse. It addresses a number of crimes including child sexual abuse, exploitation, pornography, and prostitution offenses and computer sex crimes against children.

The bill would protect children and aid law enforcement by: permitting the introduction of business records, especially internet service provider records, into evidence in grand jury proceedings; requiring registered sex offenders to provide verification of their Internet accounts and Internet screen names and permitting the Department of Criminal Justice Services to provide this information to Internet service providers; adding certain sexual crimes against children to the list of violent felony offenses; and toughening penalties involving minors in prostitution. The law encompasses many other areas of criminal activity to assist police and help victims.

The bill will be sent to the Assembly.

A rabbi at a religious school in New York's ultra-orthodox Jewish community has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing three teenage boys from the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva where he once taught.

Yoel Malik, 33, a well-regarded member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, was arrested on 28 charges ranging from sexual abuse to forcible touching, police said.

He lured two of the underaged victims to Brooklyn hotels, according to sources.

The incidents occurred between March 2012 and last week.

Malik’s family ran the since-closed yeshiva, a small private facility for troubled kids. The operation shut down over financial problems.

The allegations arose through an anonymous tip to a confidential hotline.

The arrest came a week after a Satmar counselor was sentenced to 103 years behind bars for his repeated sexual abuse of a teenage girl sent to him for help.

An unlicensed therapist and respected member of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn was sentenced on Tuesday to 103 years in prison for repeatedly sexually abusing a young woman, beginning the attacks when she was 12.

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Prosecutors say Matthew Lomaglio had repeated sexual contact with a student inside a school and during school hours when the two were along together.  The alleged victim is a boy under age 11.

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A Harlem Middle school teacher has been placed on administrative leave in the wake of 10 counts of criminal sexual abuse of a child.

Darcee Baney, 27, of Loves Park worked for the district for five years as a science teacher and as a girls’ seventh-grade basketball coach.

The alleged offenses occurred between Nov. 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009, but were not reported to authorities until early August. Because they occurred in Rockford, the case was investigated by the Rockford Police Department.

At the time, the victim was 17 years old and Baney was varsity basketball coach at Belvidere High School.

“I thought she was great,” said Alyssa Reeverts, a senior on the 2008-09 Belvidere team. “She was young and she was great with us as players. I didn’t feel any awkwardness or that she was trying anything. She kept it very professional whenever I was around her.”

Baney has been on paid administrative leave since Sept. 5, said Harlem School District Superintendent Julie M. Morris, who was with Bruscato at the news conference.

Harlem Middle School students are encouraged to contact their principals if they have any concerns. Parents who have questions can call Morris, 815-654-4588.

New York City prosecutors say a former Little League coach pleaded guilty to sexually abusing boys on his baseball team and videotaping some of the acts.

David Hartshorn pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal sexual acts. He admitted assaulting three boys — two 14-year-olds and a 13-year-old — and taping two others engaging in sex acts. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown says Hartshorn took advantage of his role as a coach and manipulated the boys.

Prosecutors say one of the boys told his mother, who notified police. Hartshorn was arrested in February 2011.

He faces 18 years in prison at his sentencing on Sept. 28. A message left with his attorney seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.

The 54-year-old Hartshorn was once named "Rochdale Village Little League Coach of the Year."

Brooklyn prep school has been accused of covering up a former footbal coach's sexual abuse of young boys in a case that shockingly mirrors the Penn State scandal.

Phil Foglietta, who is now dead, has been accused of raping and assaulting students for more than 20 years at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, New York.

A Lawyer representing the 12 victims argues that the abuse could have been prevented had the school not buried the football coach's abuse in a bid to protect its reputation and athletic program

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Four haredi Orthodox men in Brooklyn were charged with attempting to intimidate and bribe an alleged sexual abuse victim and her boyfriend in a criminal case against a local counselor.

According to the indictment filed June 21, Abraham Rubin, 48, offered the alleged victim and her boyfriend $500,000 to recant testimony against Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed psychotherapist awaiting trial on charges of sexual abuse. Weberman has been accused of 88 counts of sexual misconduct and allegedly molesting the victim in his home and office when she was aged 12 to 15.

It is the first case resulting from a new task force to address witness intimidation and harassment in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. The task force was established in May by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes in response to media reports that the community regularly hid cases of child sexual abuse from the authorities.

A New York City elementary school teacher was held on bail Thursday on charges he sexually abused an 8-year-old student in the school, a week after Mayor Michael Bloomberg pushed for more power to fire teachers accused of sex crimes.

Rafael Sosa, 29, of Yonkers, was arrested Wednesday and held on $75,000 bail, accused of multiple sexual acts with the girl between Dec. 1 and June 6, according to a criminal complaint. He was also accused of making her send him love notes over e-mail. The Department of Education reassigned him from his job at Public School 208 in Manhattan, also known as the Alain L. Locke Elementary School, where he had worked since September 2009.

Bloomberg has used the issue to call on the state Legislature to give him more authority to fire tenured teachers accused of sexual misconduct. He wants his schools chancellor, Dennis Walcott, to have the final decision on whether to fire teachers, rather than leaving that question up to independent arbitrators.

This wouldn’t be an issue in Sosa’s case, because he doesn’t have tenure.

A former Rockland County church group leader from South Nyack has been convicted of sexually abusing a 4-year-old child he was babysitting in 2009.

A Rockland County jury convicted Todd Retallack, 49.

“This case calls for a prison sentence to both punish the defendant and to serve as a warning to those offenders who prey on children,” said District Attorney Thomas Zugibe.

A Queens computer teacher arrested this year in the molestation of two students has been charged with fondling three others, officials said Thursday.

Wilbert Cortez, 49, is accused of molesting five boys between 2007 and 2011 on multiple occasions at PS 174.

Cortez — who was reassigned out of the classroom after his Feb. 16 arrest — was arraigned Wednesday night in Queens Criminal Court.

The teacher — who has been working in city schools since 1986 — is accused of placing his hand on the genitals of two students, ages 6 and 10, over their clothing while they were seated in his classroom, the district attorney said.

Cortez would also allegedly fondle the 10-year-old through his clothes while he helped clean the classroom after the lessons were over, officials said. Cortez also is accused of going into the teacher’s bathroom with an 8-year-old boy and fondling him under his clothing, officials said.

Cortez could be looking at 14 years in prison if convicted on all counts, officials said. He was released Thursday on $60,000 bail and is due back in court on June 11, according to officials and Correction Department records.

In 2000, an investigation revealed Cortez slapped two students on the buttocks on three different occasions in 1999 and 2000 at PS 184 in Brooklyn. A disciplinary letter was placed in his file.

Bail for a Brooklyn high school teacher accused of repeatedly having sex with a 16-year-old male student was set at $10,000 during a court appearance Friday.

English teacher Erin Sayar, 36, was arrested Thursday for rape and other charges for engaging in sexual conduct with the 11th grade student at Brooklyn’s James Madison High School, investigators said.

In a detailed account of the alleged sexual encounters, Sayar, who also has a child, picked up the teen at his home around midnight one night late last year and then “took him to Marine Park where they engaged in sexual intercourse in her SUV,” said special commissioner Richard Condon.

Condon said the student confessed to having relationship with Sayar.

The student’s parents, who were seen in court with their lawyer, charge that sex also took place in her office where she tutored the boy, and that she allegedly provided him marijuana.

The parents of the male student in this case have filed a $10 million notice of claim against the Department of Education, and neighbors of Sayar in Park Slope said they are disturbed by the charges.

“She’s having sex with a minor, knowing she has a good man at home and a child; I don’t know,” Zoe Carrero said.

Sayar faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Close to 20 Department of Education employees have been arrested already this year.

The seemingly never-ending string of arrests are now prompting state lawmakers to act. They’re pushing new legislation that would give school districts the final say on teacher discipline instead of arbitrators. “Every child should be protected from people who are predators,” said State Sen. Stephen Saland (R-Poughkeepsie).

In New York City, teacher discipline is currently decided by an outside hearing officer, a system Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said doesn’t always work.  “In one case, an investigator found that a teacher had inappropriately touched a number of female students. This was the teacher’s second hearing for such behavior, but the hearing officer only imposed suspension without pay and a strong warning,” Bloomberg said. ”How can we, as adults, let that teacher go back into the classroom?”

A New Paltz man has been sentenced to seven years in state prison for sexually assaulting two minors.

According to the Ulster County District Attorney's office, back in March, Chad Olson, 35, was found guilty of sexual conduct against a child, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

The DA's office says the first victim was abused between January of 2005 and August of 2008 at residences in both Rosendale and Esopus. The second victim was assaulted at a residence in Sawkill between November of 2008 and January of 2009.

Both victims testified against Olson during his four day trial.  Olson was also sentenced to ten years post release supervision.

Source:  www.hudsonvalley.ynn.com

A preliminary hearing was waived for the man accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy.

Leslie Hoke is accused of volunteering as a youth coach and firefighter for the purpose of meeting young boys.

A Grand Jury will hear the case against Hoke.

Police have asked youth organizations across Western New York if Hoke volunteered for them.  Police believe there may be as many as 15 victims across Ontario, Seneca, and Steuben Counties.

The Ontario County D.A. said he plans to upgrade the charge to predatory sexual assault of a child.

On Friday afternoon, Ontario County District Attorney Michael Tantillo said he will upgrade the charges against 37-year-old Leslie Hoke.

Hoke is accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old Canandaigua boy.

Hoke was initially charged with a single count of felony Criminal Sex Act in the first degree. Tantillo wants to charge him with Predatory Sexual Assault of a Child. The charge carries a potential life sentence. Tantillo says to also expect more counts of the same charge.

New York State Police say there are at least four victims and potentially as many as 14 or 15. Police say Hoke met the alleged victims by volunteering for youth sports organizations and fire departments.

The Canandaigua Fire Department released a statement saying Hoke was a volunteer firefighter from 2009 to 2011. He had limited interaction with teens during the Fire Explorer Program.

Police believe there may be additional victims in Waterloo in Seneca County, Geneva in Ontario County and Prattsburgh and Pulteney in Steuben County.

 A Steuben County man pleads guilty to child porn charges in U.S. District Court Friday.

21 year old Bryan Griswold of Corning is charged with taking pornographic pictures of five girls under five years old.  Authorities say some of the pictures were taken at the Corning YMCA, while the girls were in his care.

Griswold faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  Griswold is also charged in Steuben County Court with criminal sex act and sexual abuse.
The judge in Steuben County hasn't made a decision yet on this case.

50-year-old Vincent Cassala was sentenced to 15 years in State Prison on Wednesday following his conviction for sexually abusing a child.

The Albany County District Attorney's Office said that Cassala engaged in criminal sexual activity with a 15-year-old from the fall of 2010 through the spring of 2011.

Cassala was also sentenced to 10 years of post-release supervision, and will be required to register as a sex offender.

“Our greatest obligation is to the safety and protection of
our children”, said Albany County DA David Soares. “Mr.
Cassala betrayed a trust placed in him”.

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Prosecutors often deal with crime victims who do not want to testify. Victims are afraid they will be harmed by their abusers, such as victims of domestic violence. Others are embarrassed to testify in public and undergo brutal cross-examination, such as rape victims. Others are traumatized by the courtroom and having to face their abuser, such as child victims. The law has tried to accommodate these concerns through witness protection programs, rape shield laws, and closed circuit testimony. But sometimes the opposite happens: victims want to testify against their abusers but face pressure from friends, family, and powerful members of their own community not to cooperate with the authorities.

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State Police in Watertown arrested James Costigan, 32, of Calcium, NY, on two counts of criminal sexual act in the 1st degree, a class "B" felony, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a class "A" misdemeanor for having oral sexual conduct with an 8-year-old female and 5-year-old female during 2012.

The incidents occurred in the Town of Leray, Jefferson County. The children are in the care of Jefferson County Child Protective Services. Costigan was arraigned before town Justice John Hallett in the town of Leray Court and remanded to the Jefferson County PSB in lieu of $25,000 cash bail or $50,000 bond pending Grand Jury action.

Costigan is an active duty soldier stationed at Ft. Drum.

Source:  EmpireStateNews.net

The Delaware County Sheriff's Office charged Daniel G Joslin, 50, of Hamden with 3 felony sex crimes.  The investigation began three weeks ago when some victims came forward.

Investigators believe he had a sexual relations with several underage victims - both male and female - at various times over the past decade.

The charges include two counts of Criminal Sexual Act, two counts of Rape, one count of Sexual Abuse, and count of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child.

Joslin is in the Delaware County jail without bail. His next court appearance is scheduled for May 15, 2012

A kung fu grandmaster and retired police officer convicted of sexually abusing girls during martial arts lessons was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison.

Frank DeMaria, of Ossining, will also have to register as a sex offender once he gets out of prison.

The 68-year-old DeMaria was convicted in February on charges of sexual abuse, sexual conduct with children and endangering children.

Four girls ages 6 to 11 said DeMaria had them grab and pull his genitals during lessons at his school, the American Center of Chinese Studies, in Croton-on-Hudson from 2009 to 2011.

DeMaria, a retired Westchester County police officer, testified that he told students to kick and slap an attacker's groin in a maneuver called the tiger claw but didn't have them fondle him.

DeMaria came to the attention of authorities when adult students reported he was "gyrating" during a girl's lesson, the district attorney's office said.

A Verona man, Andrew Potter, 22, has been arrested on charges that he sexually abused a 1-month-old.

State Police began investigating the case when the Oneida Healthcare Facility contacted them regarding injuries suffered by the female infant.

He is scheduled to return to court on May 24.

A Canton man has been found guilty of sexually abusing two young girls. Richard Thornton was convicted on four counts, including predatory sexual assault, sexual conduct against a child, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Thornton was charged in 2010 after court documents show he sexually assaulted two young girls multiple times over an eight year time period. Both children were under the age of 11 when the assaults began.

Thornton faces a minimum of 25 years to life in prison.

Source:  www.centralny.ynn.news
Richard Thornton

A mixed verdict has both sides claiming at least partial victory in the case of the Waterville Elementary School gym teacher accused of sexually abusing a child.

On Thursday morning, a jury found David Lemery not guilty of the more serious crime of first-degree sexual conduct against a child and guilty of the same crime in the second-degree. The victim, now 19, had said that Lemery abused her from 1997-2002 while she was his student. She said he would pull down both their pants and have her sit on his lap in his office.

"It's certainly a partial victory," Defense Attorney Michael Spano said. "He was facing a mandatory state prison sentence if he was convicted of the top count of 25 years in state prison. Now the sentencing options are wide open. There's no mandatory state prison sentence he will be facing."

Lemery will be sentenced July 11 in Oneida County Court. Prison time is not mandatory. The judge can sentence him to anything from probation up to seven years in state prison.

A New York man convicted of raping a 10-year-old girl, and then fatally stabbing her father when he reported it to police, has been sentenced to 32 ½ years in state prison.
Prosecutors say the 23-year-old Ulises Bonilla raped a 10-year-old girl in a bathroom at a New Cassel park in September 2010.

When the child's father confronted Bonilla after learning about the sexual assault several days later, Bonilla stabbed the man 12 times, killing him.

He was convicted of murder, rape, sexual abuse, weapons possession and child endangerment.

Brent Reader, 32, has been accused of filming sexual acts with a child under the age of 17.  Police say he met the child on Facebook and pretended to be a teenager as well.  Police believe the two met in person in the City of Rome and that Reader recorded their sexual encounters.

Reader has been charged with use of a child in a sexual performance, criminal sexual act and resisting arrest.

State Police say they believe there may be more victims out there and are asking anyone with information to come forward by calling the Bureau of Criminal Investigation at (315) 736-8002, extension 232.

According to the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, a Greene County priest, Rev. Jeremiah Nunan, is on administrative leave from ministry as the Diocese investigates allegations he sexually abused a minor. A spokesman for the diocese says the Greene County District Attorney’s Office has been notified.

Nunan is 74 years old and pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham. He is temporarily barred from officiating at any sacraments, wearing clerical garb, or presenting himself as a priest.

The suspension follows a civil lawsuit that claims Nunan abused someone between 1996 and 2003 when that person was a minor and between 2007 and 2011 when the plaintiff was an adult. According to the spokesman for the Diocese, Nunan has denied the allegations.

The Diocese says this is the second time Rev. Nunan has been placed on administrative leave by the Diocese during an investigation of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. He returned to his duties after an allegation received in 2006 and involving alleged abuse in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Hudson was, according to the Diocese, deemed by the Independent Mediation Assistance Program to be unsubstantiated.

Police arrested a man in Wyoming County for allegedly having sexual contact with a child.

Kenneth Green was charged with two counts of Sexual Abuse and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. Green is accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with a child less than 11 years old on two occasions in the Town of Wethersfield in December 2011.

Green posted bail and will return to court later this month.

Eldon Olschewske of Geneva appeared in Ontario County Court Friday to answer to an 18-count indictment handed up by a grand jury.

The charges allege repeated and ongoing sexual contact with a ten yearold girl during November and December 2011. Authorities would only describe the victim as being a child living in the neighborhood near Olschewske's Hamilton Street apartment. The victim is not a family member.

After an arraignment in Geneva Town Court Olschewske was released to the custody of a family member only to be re-arrested days later on an additional charge of Predatory Sexual Assault of a Child.

The charges against the 92 year-old include Predatory Sexual Assault, a Class A Felony carrying a maximum prison sentence of 25 years-to-life in prison. Other charges include Criminal Sex Act (10 counts), Attempted Rape, Sexual Abuse (5 counts), and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

Ontario County Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Taylor tells 13 WHAM News that Olschewske is the oldest known defendant of felony-level charges in the county and the 82-year age gap between defendant and victim is the widest his office ever recalls.

A Batavia man is behind bars, accused of sexually abusing a 2-year-old child over a three-month period.

City of Batavia Police arrested James Little, Jr., 40, of Batavia on Wednesday. He is facing three counts of first degree criminal sexual act for allegedly sexually abusing the toddler.

The center's goal is to create one place, where children who have been physically or sexually abused can come to be interviewed, examined and begin counseling.

"So that we don't have to re-victimize these kids and sending them to the emergency department and waiting for six hours. So we don't have to send them to the police station. We don't have to have them repeat their story over and over and over again," said Bivona Executive Director Mary Whittier.

Bivona opened in August of 2004. Since then, more than 7,700 children have been evaluated there; almost 1,300 of them last year alone.

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An Oswego County man is accused of sexually abusing a child under the age of 11. Joseph Steadman, 34, was arrested Friday night. The abuse is alleged to have happened in July of 2008.

Steadman is charged with a count of criminal sex act and course sexual conduct against a child. He was sent to the county jail pending arraignment.

A New Paltz man has been convicted after officials say he sexually assaulted two minors.

On Friday, Chad Olson, 35, was found guilty in Ulster Court of course of sexual conduct against a child, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

They say the first sex assault happened between January of 2005 and August of 2008 at residences in both Rosendale and Esopus.

The second assault occurred at a residence in Sawkill between November of 2008 and January of 2009.

Both victims testified against Olson during his four day trial.

A Genesee County man has been arraigned on child sex abuse charges.

46-year-old John Chrisley faced a judge in Byron Town Court Wednesday afternoon. He's accused of having sexual contact with a child under the age of 11, last October.

Chrisley was released on his own recognizance and is due back in court on Monday.

A Safety and Security Officer at the Marcy Psychiatric Center has been accused of sexually abusing a child under the age of 14.

Steven James Minsaas, 33 is alleged to have subjected a child less than 14 years of age to sexual contact during the months of May and June 2011 while in the City of Rome. Authorities were made aware of the incidents after the victim notified an adult of what had taken place.

Minsaas was placed under arrest and taken to Rome City Lock-Up where he was held overnight. Minsaas was subsequently arraigned in Rome City Court where bail was set at $9,000.

The victim is being offered counseling services through the Oneida County Child Advocacy Center.

A Bath man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl took a plea deal in Steuben County court.

26-year old Eric Trumbull of Robie St. was charged with rape and sexual abuse in December.

Officials say trumbull raped the girl while she was in his care.
Today, Trumbull pleaded guilty to one count of predatory sexual assault on a child under the age of 13.

District Attorney Brooks Baker says Trumbull will serve 10 years jail time and 10 years post release supervision.

A 38-year-old Lockport man was arrested by New York State Police on Monday on two charges of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Robert J. Sawmiller was arraigned before City of Lockport Judge William J. Watson and remanded to the Niagara County Jail.

Authorities allege that Sawmiller had inappropriate sexual contact with a child under the age of 11, and that a second child was in the same room at the time of the alleged abuse.

BAY SHORE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Police in Suffolk County arrested a man who they say sexually abused a juvenile female victim.

Authorities said that 45-year-old Daniel Rodriguez was arrested in Bay Shore Thursday afternoon and charged with aggravated sexual abuse, promoting a sexual performance of a child and use of a child in a sexual performance.
Rodriguez was also charged for failing to register as a sex offender, police said.

Authorities said that Rodriguez was required to register as a sex offender after being convicted of 1st-degree rape in 1992.

He is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on Friday.

The State Police in Fulton have arrested Joseph M. Thompson, 42, of 89 Country Lane, Fulton, for three counts of second-degree sexual abuse and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.  The charges are both Class A misdemeanors.

Investigation conducted by members of the SP Fulton BCI revealed that Thompson had allegedly fondled a female child under the age of 12 several times over the past several months.

The incidents occurred at Thompson’s residence in the town of Hannibal, according to the State Police.

Thompson was arraigned in the Town of Hannibal Court and remanded to the Oswego County Jail in lieu $1,500 cash/$3,000 bond.

The pastor of a Bronx church charged with rape last January for impregnating a teen was indicted Thursday for raping another girl, prosecutors said.

Michael Clare, the 40-year-old married leader of the Harvest Worship Center in Wakefield, had sexual contact with the girl at least three times between June 22, 2009 and June 30, 2011 at the school and inside his home, prosecutors said.

Their two-year relationship began when the girl was 14, police said. The victim, now 17, reported the allegations earlier this month, cops said.

The girl was a student a Harvest Preparatory Academy, a school run out of Clare’s tiny storefront church. Records still list him as the principal there.

The new charges against Clare include rape, sexual misconduct and sexual abuse.

Clare was first arrested in June 2010 for allegedly repeatedly having sex with a different girl from his flock — starting when she was 12, prosecutors said.

The girl became pregnant, and DNA evidence implicated Clare, prosecutors said. He was indicted for raping her in Jan. 2011.

He faces 32 years in state prison if convicted of the two rape charges.

A Glens Falls man had been arrested 20 times before his arrest for allegedly sexually abusing a 7-week-old girl, choking the infant's mother and killing a parakeet, a Warren County judge said at the suspect's arraignment Monday.

David B. Cook, 33, pleaded not guilty to several felony charges at his court appearance.

At the court hearing, Judge John Hall Jr. said Cook had been arrested 20 times in the past, convicted of eight misdemeanors and failed to appear in court three times. Warren County prosecutors released a dossier of information that detailed Cook's past actions and statements he allegedly made to police.

Prosecutors say Cook sexually abused a 7-week-old baby in his home on March 3, which caused critical injuries to the infant. Doctors recently removed the baby from the intensive care unit at Albany Medical Center, but it was too soon to tell if her injuries will heal, the district attorney said.

He is being held in Warren County Jail.

A judge sentenced a Brooklyn man to 30 years in prison today for sexually abusing underage children and producing homemade pornographic videos of his crimes.

Felix Cartagena also admitted that he distributed his videos and photographs over the Internet, sharing images of him raping children with other like-minded pedophiles using the Web, officials said.

Cartagena would roam the streets, trawling for young children in "planned events" and then lure them back to his basement for depraved sessions of sexual abuse, the prosecutor said.

According to prosecutors at an earlier hearing, the 27 year-old man would tie his victims up, sometimes gag the child, and once put a BB gun to a toddler's head - then he photographed the child's abuse at his own hands.

FBI agents found more than 20,000 images of child pornography "carefully organized" in files, after they arrested Cartagena in 2010, the prosecutor said.

A school aide in Queens was arrested Thursday on charges of sexually abusing six 9- and 10-year-old girls at the school, becoming the fifth city school worker charged in the last few weeks with sexual crimes against children.

The aide, Brett Picou, 30, of Public School 52 in Springfield Gardens, is awaiting arraignment on seven felony counts of sexual abuse, one felony count of repeated sexual abuse of a child and seven misdemeanor counts of forcible touching, the Queens district attorney’s office said.

Mr. Picou has been a full-time paraprofessional at the school since January 2010, the Education Department said. Paraprofessionals are aides assigned to individual students, often special-needs students or students in crisis. Mr. Picou has no disciplinary record and has been suspended since the allegation was made on Feb. 15, the department said.

The recent string of charges against school employees, several of them with histories of sexual contact with children buried in their personnel records, prompted the schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, to order a review last week of all substantiated cases of misconduct since 2000; he pledged to fire any teachers who had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.

The arrests began Feb. 6, when a teacher’s aide in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, was charged with making videos of his sexual acts with children.

Then a teacher’s aide on the Upper West Side was arrested on sexual abuse charges after a male student told investigators that the man had him strip in the school’s lavatory and, at another point, offered money to fondle the boy.

On Feb. 16, a computer teacher in Queens with a history of inappropriately touching children was arrested on charges of inappropriately touching an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old boy.

And on Wednesday, word came that a substitute high school teacher in the Bronx had been arrested on charges that he twisted a 16-year-old male student’s nipples on Feb. 10.

Croton kung fu instructor Frank DeMaria, 68, of Ossining was convicted Tuesday of sexually abusing four young girls.

According to the DA, adults initially reported to Croton Police that they saw the defendant take the young students into a corner and watches as the defendant’s gyrated his hips.

Female victims then told investigators that the defendant instructed them, on more than one occasion, to grab his penis and to squeeze and pull it repeatedly.

According to the DA, the defendant is an internationally-known grand master instructor who owned and operated a kung fu studio in Croton-on-Hudson. The victims were students and the incidents took place between Nov. 1,2009 and Jan. 6, 2011 at the studio, the DA said.

DeMaria was arrested by Croton Police on Jan. 14, 2011. The defendant, who was remanded after the verdict, faces a maximum of seven years in state prison on each of the top counts when he is sentenced on May 8.

A former church leader in Rochester, already convicted of sexually abusing a young boy, will be back in court Thursday.

Bishop Joe Flowers is accused of molesting two other children. He was sentenced in August for sexually abusing an eight-year-old boy. That child’s family went to Flowers’ church.

Flowers was sentenced to seven years in prison for that charge but he is currently in the Monroe County Jail until these other cases are resolved.

A former worker at a Brooklyn after-school program run by the city Housing Authority has been charged with sexually abusing a girl in his care.

Investigators are concerned the 63-year-old suspect may have molested other children as well, law enforcement sources said.

Nicholas Rodriguez was busted last spring, just months after he retired as community coordinator for the Jonathan Williams Plaza Community Center in Williamsburg, officials said. He was charged with molesting a girl, now 10, who started attending the center’s after-school program when she was just 5, officials and the victim’s mother told The News.

The mother said she was confused when her daughter suddenly asked to enroll in another program in 2009 after attending the center for two years. The mom switched the girl to another center.

A year later — the day after Christmas in 2010 — her daughter revealed why she had wanted to leave. “She said she had to tell me something,” the mother recalled. “She said, ‘Nick touched me.’ He told her not to tell anybody.” The teary-eyed girl then showed her mother where Rodriguez allegedly touched her by pointing to her private parts. She said she then took her daughter to the police.

After an investigation, cops had enough to charge Rodriguez with sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Rodriguez — who has a prior arrest for criminal possession of a controlled substance in 2003 — retired from NYCHA in January 2011 after nearly 32 years working for the agency, but cops cuffed him at the day-care center on May 25, officials said.

Two former employees of the NYCHA center said they are sure Rodriguez hurt more children. One ex-worker said “There were other complaints...”

A NYCHA spokeswoman said she was unaware of any prior investigations regarding Rodriguez and added that he passed background checks in 2008 and 2010.

Perhaps as damning as the testimony from the two young victims, age 10 and 12, were the words coming out of the 50-year-old defendant's own mouth, in a videotaped interview with state police investigators.

Former long-time local correction officer Donald Hughes, of Floyd, faces sexual abuse charges regarding the two girls, whose lives he's been in since birth and who knew him as, "Poppy."

Day Three of Hughes' trial took place in Oneida County Court in Utica on Wednesday. The girls took the stand on Tuesday, one testifying that Hughes touched her chest both over and under her shirt; the other, describing in detail how she claims Hughes made her touch his penis.

On Wednesday, jurors saw a videotaped interview between defendant Hughes and an investigator from the Child Advocacy Center in Utica and Hughes and a state police investigator. In it, Hughes admits guiding the 10-year-old's hands down his pants. Hughes cried during parts of the videotaped interview. The mother of one of the alleged victims rocked back and forth and cried while Hughes described placing the child's hands in his pants. Hughes and his attorney will hear all of the prosecution witnesses before deciding whether or not Hughes will testify on his own behalf.

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court has rejected the contention of former pizzeria owner Anthony C. Sapienza that the 35-year prison sentence imposed on him by Warren County Court Judge John S. Hall for sexually assaulting two girls is harsh and excessive.

Last July, Sapienza’s conviction had been held by the appeals court but in a 4-0 decision, found that Hall had imposed illegal sentences on certain counts. The court vacated the sentences on 12 counts and remitted the matter for resentencing. But when Sapienza, 44, was resentenced, Hall imposed even longer sentences than he did the first time.

Sapienza, former owner of Sapienza’s Pizzeria and Restaurant on Route 9, was found guilty following jury trial in January 2009 13 felonies and four misdemeanors for repeated sexual encounters with 14-and 16-year-old girls including sex acts which occurred at the restaurant.

Sapienza was represented at trial by the Warren County Public Defender’s office and maintained that he was the victim in the case, that the girls and police had lied and concocted the allegations against him. He continued to maintain his innocence throughout the trial, boisterously on several occasions prompting the judge to threaten to remove him from the courtroom.

A 56-year-old New York prison inmate says former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine began molesting him more than 40 years ago and continued to have sexual contact with hin into adulthood.

Floyd Van Hooser told the Associated Press during a prison interview that Fine began sexually abusing him when Van Hooser was 14 years old.

Van Hooser is the fourth man to accuse Fine of sexual abuse. He initially made his allegations to the Post Standard of Syracuse.

Fine was fired Nov. 27 after three men said he molested them when they were boys. Fine has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged. A federal investigation is ongoing.

A Norwalk minister was sentenced fo five years in prison at Queens Supreme Court for molesting a young relative. The Rev. Phillip Joubert, 50, was facing up to seven years in prison after he was convicted in November of five charges related to the abuse. “Pastor Joubert’s unwillingness to admit guilt or express contrition did not help his case,” said his attorney. “However, it was impossible to answer to the charge in any other way.”

Joubert, the founding pastor of New Light Missionary Baptist Church in Norwalk, was accused if sexually assaulting female relative on two occasions at his Queens, N.Y. home in the summer of 2009.

The rape allegations against Joubert came to light after a Nov. 14, 2009, child abuse incident at Joubert’s Norwalk Home, police said. During the incident, Joubert allegedly hit the female victim in the face and several times about the torso after he came home to find his Lexington Avenue apartment was messy, according to his arrest warrant affidavit.

While officers were interviewing the victim and her mother, the victim revealed that Joubert sexually abuse her at his residence in Queens, police said. Norwalk officers turned the rape investigation over the New York City Police Dept.

New York City Police arrested Joubert on Nov. 24, 2009, as he arrived at J.F.K. Airport after a trip to Israel. Joubert admitted to touching the victim’s breast and vagina during a videotaped interview with N.Y. City police, but the victim alleged that he physically assaulted her and forced her to have sex with him, court documents show.

The Waterville teacher accused of sexually abusing a girl under the age of 11 during the course of several years is now headed to trial for the accused crimes. David Lemery was in Oneida County Court in Utica on Thursday and his attorney said they do not plan on accepting a guilty plea in this case. At Lemery's previous court appearance, it was stated that Lemery and his attorney would return December 22 to decide whether or not to pursue a psychiatric defense. However, nothing of that was mentioned at the December 22 appearance. Lemery is a Physical Education teacher at Waterville Central School and has been on paid administrative leave since first being charged.

Lemery has been charged with two counts of first-degree sexual conduct against a child, and two counts of the same charge in the second degree. The charge states that the offense had to have happened twice over the duration of 3 months. In December, Lemery's attorney waived a hearing to suppress certain statements Lemery made to authorities, but reserve the right to discuss their relevance or whether they might be prejudiced. Over the summer, the Oneida County District Attorney's office extended a plea offer to Lemery, but he rejected it. The details of that offer have not been disclosed at this time. Lemery remains out of custody on $15,000 cash bail or bond, and the judge set a trial date of March 5.

A shocking story out of Wayne County, New York where a district attorney says it involves the youngest sex abuse victim he's ever seen. Authorities say a Lyons man sexually assaulted and nearly killed a nine month old girl. Lyons is located about midway between Rochester and Syracuse.

24-year old Richard Dallas was arrested Friday. He faces seven charges which include sexual assault against a child and aggravated sex abuse. The alleged abuse happened on November 30th when paramedics were called to a home where they found the nine month old girl having trouble breathing.

Later doctors found the baby had severe internal injuries requiring emergency surgery. The Wayne County District Attorney says she would have died without treatment. D.A. Richard Healy said, "I've been a prosecutor for 30 years when I think I've seen everything, but a case like this comes along... there really aren't any words to describe how bad this is".

Healy says Dallas has no past criminal history and is not a registered sex offender. He pled not guilty Friday to all the charges and is being held in jail without bail until his next court appearance.

Buffalo attorney Kendra Winkelstein resigned as legal counsel to the ruling clique of the Tuscarora Nation last week following allegations of the systematic sexual abuse of young girls on the reservation by individuals with strong ties to the Tuscarora leadership. Winkelstein, who has represented tribal clerk Leo Henry, Neil Patterson Sr. and Neil Patterson Jr. for the past 18 years, told the Niagara Falls Reporter that the reasons behind her resignation were "personal." She declined comment when asked whether she is now talking with agents of the federal government or any other law enforcement agencies. A spokeswoman for the Buffalo FBI office would neither confirm nor deny that Henry and the Pattersons are under investigation. For Henry and the Pattersons, Winkelstein's resignation is potentially devastating, as Winkelstein has been the public face of the former "Gang of Four" to local, state and federal bureaucracies like the Niagara County Sheriff's Department, the New York Power Authority, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency. She has been a key negotiator for the Tuscarora leadership, and has served as their representative in eviction proceedings and other highly criticized procedures undertaken by Henry and the Pattersons. Speculation about Winkelstein's resignation was rampant on the reservation last week.

A chair's got four legs, but you kick one out from under it and the whole thing falls down," one Tuscarora told the Reporter. Without the thin veneer of legality Winkelstein provided, it seems unlikely that government agencies will continue to do business with a regime responsible for basic human rights violations, including the denial of electrical service and medical treatment, the hijacking of $12.5 million received by the Tuscaroras over the past six years under the Power Authority's relicensing agreement, and an alleged pattern of ongoing sexual abuse under which the parents of victimized children were threatened with the loss of their homes and land should they choose to go to authorities. Because of confidentiality and ethical standards, Dougherty said he could not give the names of the women, but said they all told fundamentally the same story.

A powerful Tuscarora man, related by blood to at least one of those currently sitting on the ruling clique, raped and abused the women when they were young girls between the ages of 11 and 16, he said. "We're talking about an evil man," Dougherty said. "It's kind of surprising no one's shot him yet." In fact, Dougherty said, the father of one of the girls in question had to be physically restrained after he took off after the alleged perpetrator with a shotgun. "He was lucky that day, and he's stayed lucky."

The women waited years before coming forward with their allegations, because of the perpetrator's close ties to those in the Tuscarora government, Dougherty added. "They didn't say anything out of fear," he said. "Fear that they would be removed from the rolls, that their parents would be removed from the rolls, losing their property, or not having the ability to buy property."

More recently, allegations of repeated incidents of child molestation have surfaced at the Tuscarora Health Clinic, and the situation is considered so grave that a meeting was held for clinic workers in September where they were instructed about what to say should anyone ask them about the situation. Numerous sources on the reservation said last week that the case involves multiple victims and a former worker at the clinic -- related by blood to the suspect in the earlier case and to the member of the ruling clique as well -- who was quietly removed from his position last month. According to the sources, the tribal leadership is deliberately conducting a coverup of what went on at the clinic, to the point of enlisting one powerful Clan Mother to warn the victims and their families of the dire consequences they might face should they speak out about what happened.

It happened for a very long time: Eighty-five men from Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox community are suspected of sexually abusing more than 100 of the community's children and teenagers.

Many, including the victims' parents, allegedly knew about it but chose to keep silent – until one of the community organizations decided to reveal the horrible secret and went to the police.

The affair was reported by the New York Post on Sunday. The New York police are still unsure when the abuse began, but it clearly stretched over several years. Several years of suffering, trauma and perhaps the worst thing of all – a conspiracy of silence aimed at preventing humiliation and shame, all at the expense of the helpless children.

An initiative called Kol Tzedek (“voice of justice") decided to expose the dreadful acts, and as the months went by more and more men were arrested. The organization members located children who fell victim to the abuse and convinced them to complain. The case involves 117 victims – 89 of whom are under the age of 17. The number of arrests is expected to increase as the affair unfolds.

So far, 38 indictments have been filed and 14 of the detainees have already been sent to jail for up to 20 years for rape, sodomy and kidnapping. Another 24 suspects have been released on bail, and the rest are still being questioned.

According to the investigation, in some of the cases parents knew their children were being molested but gave in to community pressure and chose to remain silent.

'Victims were troubled kids' One of the suspects is Andrew Goodman, 27, who worked for Jewish social-service agencies and looks like a movie star. According to the New York Post, many members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community believe he is a monster.

Goodman was already arrested in 2010, but was released on bail. The price of his freedom appears to have been heavy: Since returning home, he hosted dozens of children and allegedly abused them during parties with liquor and child porn. Some of the kids were photographed by neighbors entering and leaving the apartment.

So far, authorities have charged him with sexually abusing two Orthodox boys for years in Flatbush — one from age 11 to 15, the other from age 13 to 16.

According to the 144-count indictment, which alleges numerous violations since 2006, Goodman filmed sex acts with the youngsters on a Web cam. Court papers and source say he also “threatened the life” of a boy who reported him to authorities. Andrew Goodman is known in our community as a lifelong molester who preys on young boys and ruins their lives,” a Talmudic scholar at Congregation Bais Torah wrote to Brooklyn Judge Martin Murphy, who is hearing the case, the New York Post reported.

Rabbi Shea Hecht, of the Hasidic Lubavitch group, accused Goodman on a Jewish radio show of "hunting" for prey. He said Goodman went to yeshiva playgrounds, once offering a reward for any boy who found his “lost glasses". Goodman also pressured boys to recruit others, the rabbi said.

Goodman is currently in detention and has pleaded not guilty. “These were not forceful — no one was held against their will," his lawyer said, adding that the alleged victims were “troubled kids who did not have a good home life.” He claimed that one boy ran away and Goodman “gave him a safe haven."

New York state lawmakers said the announcement on Wednesday that a former Syracuse University coach will not face sex abuse charges because the statute of limitations had run out could boost efforts to reform state child abuse laws.

One proposal would provide for the five-year statute of limitations to begin when victims turn 23, instead of age 18 as it now stands, said New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey. She introduced the proposal seven years ago after a constituent said he had long ago been abused by a priest but nothing could be done because of the statute of limitations. Her bill also would create a one-year window, beginning when the law takes effect, for victims to bring civil claims against alleged abusers for whom the statute of limitations has passed. Civil suits allow alleged victims to seek monetary damages but not prison time.

Since the Syracuse University scandal broke, Markey said her colleagues have been asking more about her proposal, which she said was modeled on similar legislation in California. Former Syracuse University basketball coach Bernie Fine has been accused by two men of fondling them as juveniles beginning as far back as the 1980s.

Investigators believe the accusations are true but Fine cannot be prosecuted under state law due to the statute of limitations, District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said. Fine has said the accusations are "patently false."

"We will be drawing attention to this because I see it as the only way to help the victims of Syracuse and Brooklyn Poly Prep," Markey said, referring to claims that a football coach at the Brooklyn private school molested dozens of boys over 25 years. In 2005, a Poly Prep alumnus sued the school, but the case was thrown out because of the statute of limitations. The coach accused of molesting the boys, Philip Foglietta, died in 1998. Last year, seven alumni filed a federal suit accusing the school of covering up the abuse for years.

"People should be up in arms about this, but I don't feel the rage," Markey said. "These victims deserve to be compensated."

Legislators said there has been some opposition to the civil window because it would allow anyone to bring a claim even if they were abused many decades previously. A related issue is the rights of the accused because, some argue, extending the statute of limitations too far would make it impossible to present an adequate defense.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that criminal statutes of limitations cannot be changed retroactively but civil statutes can be altered, which her bill would do, Markey said.

Reforms adopted in Delaware in 2007 eliminated the civil statute of limitations on sexual abuse and allowed a two-year window for civil suits by victims for whom the statute of limitations had passed. Under the Delaware law, 14 men who said they were sexually assaulted as children in the 1970s and 1980s announced last week they reached a $7 million settlement with three Catholic Church institutions that employed and supervised their predators.

In Pennsylvania, lawmakers said this week that in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University they would propose reforms to give victims more time to press civil claims. At Penn State, former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, 67, faces 52 counts of sexually abusing ten young boys over a 15-year period. He has denied he abused the boys.

In New York, another bill in the Assembly would change the law so the five-year period begins when a crime is first reported to law enforcement. Another bill would extend the statute of limitations for sex offenses against minors for 30 years. Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, who sponsored the 30-year proposal, said recently that the Syracuse case would reinvigorate his push to get the bill passed next year.

"Many times, people are too embarrassed to come forward," he said. "If people do come forward later in life, the person who did it should be punished."

New York state prosecutors said they would turn over the evidence in the Syracuse case to federal authorities. There is no federal statute of limitations on abuse of minors during the life of the victim. But Steven Statsinger, assistant federal defender at Federal Defenders of New York, said that federal prosecutors would have to establish jurisdiction to bring a case. If the alleged abuse occurred only in New York, for example, prosecutors may find it hard to establish federal jurisdiction.

"In order for it to be a federal offense, there would have to be something inter-state about it," said Statsinger.

In a federal lawsuit, nine men say they were abused by former football coach Phil Foglietta from 1966 until the early 1980s.

Brooklyn’s Poly Prep Country Day School is coming under fire for its alleged four-decade cover-up of “prolonged and horrific sexual abuse of many of its sons” by its late iconic football coach, Phil Foglietta.

In a federal lawsuit, nine men say they were abused by Foglietta from 1966 until the early 1980s, the Daily News reports. The suit alleges Poly Prep received complaints about Foglietta shortly after he was hired, but did not take action against him because of his coaching success and fundraising prowess for the highly respected 157-year-old school.

Foglietta might have abused dozens or even hundreds of boys, according to the suit, but top school officials allegedly ignored complaints or threatened to discipline or expel students who reported they were abused.

The plaintiffs are seeking at least $20 million each in compensatory and punitive damages. One of them is David Hiltbrand, 57, who told the News about an episode in the coaches’ locker room shower when he said Foglietta rubbed his shoulders and put his hand between his legs. Hiltbrand jumped away and into scalding water, then saw the coach groping other boys, he said.

“It was so terrifying,” Hiltbrand told the paper. “It made me feel like I had done something wrong. I come from a Roman Catholic family and I just knew I was going to hell.”

Foglietta was Poly Prep’s football coach and a physical education instructor for students between 5th and 12th grades from 1966 until 1991. The school did not renew his contract. He died in 1998. The lawsuit was filed two years ago. School lawyers have filed to dismiss it.

“It would not be appropriate to comment upon specific allegations now pending in a federal court,” Headmaster David Harman said in a statement to the News. “The school believes that a lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages based on conduct that took place largely in the 1960s and 1970s is not actionable.” Herman is a defendant in the suit, along with former headmaster William M. Williams, the school, and various members of its board of trustees.

The case echoes the recent coaching abuse scandals at Penn State and Syracuse University, but Poly Prep officials rejected such comparisons, according to the News.

The iconic coach is not mentioned on the school’s website.

An upstate New York dance teacher has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing a young boy who was one of his students.

The Glens Falls Post-Star reports that 49-year-old Timothy McGuire said nothing when he was sentenced Wednesday in Warren County Court. A jury convicted him in October of sexual conduct against a child, a felony, and misdemeanor sexual abuse.

He was found guilty of repeatedly abusing the boy from the time he was 6 until he was 14.

During his trial, McGuire denied having sexual contact with the boy.

McGuire ran the Tim McGuire Dance Centre in Glens Falls for 30 years. His lawyer has appealed the conviction.

A level 3 sex offender has been denied bail for allegedly abusing a minor, again. 60-year-old Dennis Duboy pleaded not guilty in Troy City Court this morning to new charges of Sex Abuse and Criminal Sex Act, both felonies, as well as Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

Investigators say Duboy performed a sex act on a 15-year-old boy without his consent. Duboy has been convicted multiple times on previous child abuse charges.

According to the New York State Sex Offender Registry website, Duboy served 15 years in state prison for a 1986 conviction on charges of sex abuse involving a minor.

Longtime Syracuse University assistant coach Bernie Fine is the subject of a police investigation into allegations that he molested a team ball boy for more than a dozen years, starting in the mid-1980s, according to an ESPN report. The alleged victim, Bobby Davis, told ESPN that Fine began molesting him in 1983 just before Davis entered seventh grade. According to the report, Davis says the abuse happened at Fine’s home, Syracuse basketball facilities and on road trips, including the 1987 Final Four. Davis spent six years as Syracuse’s ball boy. Fine is in his 35th season as a Syracuse assistant to Jim Boeheim. He has been placed on administrative leave.

Davis, now 39, says the abuse continued until he was 27 and reported the abuse to Syracuse police in 2003, but detectives told him the statute of limitations had expired and they would not investigate. ESPN investigated the story in 2003, but decided not to run the story because Davis was the only person willing to talk. The Syracuse Post-Standard also investigated the allegations in 2003. The news is emerging now because another alleged victim says he was sexually abused by Fine and is coming forward now because of news coverage of the Jerry Sandusky sexual-abuse scandal at Penn State, according to ESPN’s story.

According to the New York Penal Code, there is no statute of limitations “for prosecuting first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, or first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child,” but the statute of limitations “for other sexual offenses committed against a child under age 18 is five years after the victim reaches age 18, or the offense is reported to a law enforcement agency or statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment, whichever is earlier.”

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim released a statement in support of Fine: ''This matter was fully investigated by the University in 2005 and it was determined that the allegations were unfounded. I have known Bernie Fine for more than 40 years. I have never seen or witnessed anything to suggest that he would [have] been involved in any of the activities alleged. Had I seen or suspected anything, I would have taken action. Bernie has my full support.''

In a statement by Syracuse University: “We understand that the Syracuse City Police has now reopened the case, and Syracuse University will cooperate fully. We are steadfastly committed to ensuring that SU remains a safe place for every student”.