Eighty more names were added to the list of men and women accusing a New York City hospital of knowing, and not preventing, a prominent pediatric specialist from sexually abusing and taking naked photographs of child patients.
Over the past year, more than 100 individuals have come forward regarding abuse they said they endured decades ago under the care of Dr. Reginald Archibald, a pediatric endocrinologist at Rockefeller University Hospital.
The Marsh law firm is filing a group claim today on behalf of 80 individuals in New York State Supreme Court of New York County under the Child Victims Act. The individuals range in age from 40 years old to late 70s, and are mostly male.
Some of the plaintiffs named in the claim are Rockland and Dutchess county residents.
“It’s really the same story over and over again. This doctor put child patients in his exam room, locked the door and sexually abused them,” said Jennifer Freeman, a senior attorney with New York-based Marsh.
Freeman said some of the cases their firm is working on have been resolved. She would not say how many have reached settlements, but said they have had “productive conversations with Rockefeller.”
One of the biggest differences between Marsh’s recent lawsuit and the one it filed in August 2019 when the Child Victims Act window first opened up was that now most of the plaintiffs are willing to use their names and forgo anonymity.
“There’s been so much shame and humiliation and fear and upset in the past… But that seems to have shifted. For this group of plaintiffs, they are good with having their names there and knowing it was them,” Freeman said.