As one in all his closing acts in workplace, Mayor Adams late on Christmas Eve vetoed a Metropolis Council invoice that may quickly permit victims of gender-based violence to sue their perpetrators even when the statute of limitations for his or her declare has lapsed.
The veto, which Adams issued only a week earlier than he leaves workplace on Dec. 31, got here although the Council handed the invoice in a unanimous 48-to-0 vote final month.
The Council has 30 days to override a mayoral veto. Three-fourths of the chamber’s 51 members would wish to help an override for it to achieve success.
The gender-based violence invoice’s creator, Queens Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers, mentioned in an announcement late Wednesday that the chamber “must” subsequent month “override this callous veto and restore survivors’ right to seek accountability.”
“By vetoing Intro 1297 on Christmas Eve the mayor is delivering a cruel ‘gift’ to survivors of gender-motivated violence: a message that their right to seek justice can wait,” Brooks-Powers mentioned. “This veto is Mayor Adams once again bowing to big, powerful interests while turning his back on vulnerable New Yorkers.”
The Council will reconvene in early January for a brand new session, with Manhattan Councilwoman Julie Menin anticipated to be sworn in as the following Council speaker. Menin didn’t instantly return messages inquiring about what her plans is perhaps concerning a possible override of Adams’ newest veto.
Brooks-Powers’ invoice, first launched this previous Could, would reopen an 18-month window for alleged victims of gender-based violence to file civil lawsuits concerning crimes that occurred earlier than Jan. 9, 2022. A earlier model of the Gender-Motivated Violence Act, which quickly allowed such victims to convey fits after the statute of limitations, lapsed earlier this 12 months.
The invoice was crafted after a whole bunch of ex-juvenile detainees who had tried to sue New York Metropolis over alleged sexual abuse whereas incarcerated obtained their circumstances thrown out this 12 months as a result of a decide discovered the regulation as initially written didn’t permit for his or her claims to maneuver ahead. The invoice will not be restricted to solely letting such victims convey circumstances, although, however applies to anybody alleging gender-based violence.
“Domestic violence is a serious crime and perpetrators of this act of violence must be held accountable and brought to justice, but this bill would allow a single law firm that lobbied [Council] Speaker [Adrienne] Adams and the City Council to pocket up to $300 million of taxpayer funds while reviving claims that have already been dismissed,” the mayor’s assertion mentioned. “This is not justice but a windfall for a fancy law firm to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of survivors as well as all New York taxpayers. Our office even tried to work with the City Council to ensure compensation for survivors of domestic violence and limit attorney’s fees for this one firm, but they refused to engage.”
Jerome Block, a lawyer at Levy Konigsberg LLP, the regulation agency slammed by Adams, predicted the survivors who fought for the invoice’s passage “will ultimately prevail.”
“Mayor Adams’ veto will not stand,” Block mentioned. “We are confident that this shocking Christmas Eve veto will be overridden by the City Council.”
One other regulation adopted on the state degree in 2022, the Grownup Survivors Act, enabled victims of sexual offenses to sue their perpetrators for a time frame even when their claims have been time-barred.
Lorna Seaside-Mathura, a former NYPD worker, sued Mayor Adams in early 2024 below the Grownup Survivors Act, alleging he sexually assaulted her whereas they each served within the Police Division within the early Nineties. That swimsuit stays pending, and Adams has vehemently denied Seaside-Mathura’s accusations.
The Christmas Eve maneuver comes as Adams could transfer in his closing few days to veto a number of housing development-related payments that the Council handed final week. After these payments handed, Adams’ workplace sharply criticized them and mentioned the mayor would evaluation his choices.
Adams, a moderate-conservative Democrat whose first and solely time period in workplace was marred by his personal indictment and different corruption scandals, has had a rocky relationship with the Council all through his time in Metropolis Corridor.
He has issued vetoes of Council payments associated to every little thing from police transparency to housing subsidies. In almost each occasion, the Council has overridden him, forcing the measures into regulation over his objection.
Adams’ successor, Zohran Mamdani, will probably be sworn in as the following mayor Jan. 1.
