Twenty men have filed suit against the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, alleging the organization was negligent in allowing alleged sexual abuse by two staff members, one of whom was depicted in the 1978 memoir “The Basketball Diaries.”
The complaint alleges gym director Nicholas “Lefty” Antonucci and “pool doctor” Dr. Reginald Archibald routinely and systematically abused boys at the club, and that the club “failed to address sexual abuse which was occurring in plain sight.”
Antonucci was featured as Lefty in “The Basketball Diaries,” a memoir by Jim Carroll, the lawsuit states. The book was adapted into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
An attorney who represents the alleged victims says they didn’t report the abuse at the time because of their age, family circumstances and the cultural ignorance of child sex abuse at the time.
“It was a vastly different time,” attorney James Marsh told CNN.
Jennifer Freeman, an attorney for the 20 men suing the club, spoke to CNN on Wednesday.
“This was in plain sight,” she said. “They were abusing kids in plain sight.”
The suit notes the New York County District Attorney’s office investigated Archibald “in or about 1960” for abuse allegations surrounding his work as a physician at Rockefeller University Hospital. “As far as I know there was a grand jury subpoena issued,” Freeman said, however, “he was not charged.”