EXCLUSIVE: Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform
ALBANY — Not leaving it to divine chance, the state Catholic Conference has turned in recent years to some of Albany's most well-connected and influential lobby firms to help block a bill that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice.
The Catholic Conference, headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, has used Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Hank Sheinkopf, and Mark Behan Communications to lobby against the Child Victims Act as well as for or against other measures.
All told, the conference spent more than $2.1 million on lobbying from 2007 through the end of 2015, state records show. That does not include the conference's own internal lobbying team.
Filings show the lobbyists were retained, in part, to work on issues associated with "statute of limitations" and "timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses." Other issues included parochial school funding and investment tax credits.
"They are willing to spend limitless money in order to basically keep bad guys from being accountable for their actions," said Melanie Blow, chief operations officer of the Stop Abuse Campaign. "I think they're doing it because they don't want to have to pay out settlements."
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"Once Ms. Lynch lobbied for the Catholic Conference, Mr. Silver's support for our bill ended, and the bill did not come out of the Assembly's Codes Committee … which as speaker, he controlled," John Aretakis, a former lawyer and an advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse, wrote in a scathing letter recently to a judge handling Silver's recent criminal sentencing. State lobbying records show the firm's contract with the Catholic Conference was terminated earlier this year, not long after Lynch was outed in court papers as having had an affair with Silver.
Silver was sentenced earlier this month to 12 years in prison after his conviction on federal corruption charges. Lynch, whose firm was being paid $7,500-a-month, would only say her contract with the Catholic Conference was ended by "mutual consent."
Sheinkopf, meanwhile, has had close ties with Gov. Cuomo, the former leadership of the Senate Democrats when they were in control of the chamber, and even the Senate Republicans.
Like the others who were hired by the Catholic Conference, he would not discuss the specifics about what he does for the $5,000-a-month he is being paid. "They like me," he said. "They think I'm smart." In an email, Catholic Conference spokesman Dennis Poust wouldn't comment directly on his organization's lobbying efforts. He also would not comment on the reasoning behind why specific lobbying firms were chosen.
"The Catholic Conference lobbies on many issues, from assisted suicide to farm worker rights to school choice to criminal justice reform," Poust said. He said the conference's lobbying activity is in full compliance with the law and is reported, as required, to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics. "As such it is all a matter of public record," Poust said. "We have no further comment beyond that."