Epstein among targets as door opens to old sex abuse claims

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, schools and hospitals, and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein are some of the targets named in a flurry of sex abuse lawsuits filed Wednesday in New York as the state began accepting cases that had been blocked by an old statute of limitations.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of lawsuits are expected as plaintiffs rush to take advantage of the one-year litigation window, created by state lawmakers this year to give alleged abuse victims a second chance to sue over abuse that, in many cases, happened decades ago.

Those suing Wednesday include a woman who says she was raped by Epstein as a teenager in 2002. She is suing Epstein's estate and three of his associates.

Other high-profile lawsuits filed Wednesday include one from 45 former Rockefeller University Hospital patients who say a renowned endocrinologist molested hundreds of boys over more than three decades.

Hundreds of other people sued the church or one of its several New York dioceses. Among them is Peter Vajda, who said a religious brother molested him when he attended a Catholic boarding school in the Bronx in the early 1950s.

The brother is likely long dead, but the church survives. Early Wednesday, Vajda, now 75, filed a lawsuit naming the Archdiocese of New York as a defendant. Justice, he said, may have been delayed, but he won't let it be denied.

"Now it's their turn. Now it's their time," he said Monday. "And I want them to get everything they deserve in the way of punishment."

The state's statute of limitations had been among the nation's most restrictive before state lawmakers extended it earlier this year for new cases.

"This is a momentous time for courageous survivors who have waited so long for justice in New York," said Jeff Anderson,...