Former patients of a doctor accused of molesting children at Manhattan’s Rockefeller University Hospital for decades are demanding to know what happened to photos they say the physician took while the abuse was occurring.
Questions about the whereabouts of the photos continues to haunt many of the former patients, according to Michael Pfau, an attorney with the Seattle-based firm of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, who is representing about 100 former patients.
The thought that the photos are now circulating as child pornography compounds his clients’ pain and fear, Pfau said.
“Finding these photos is critical for our clients,” he said. “Hopefully the hospital can do the right thing and accelerate the investigation.”
A spokesman for the hospital declined to comment when asked about the photos Monday.
Civil molestation suits against institutions in New York are now subject to one of the nation’s tightest statutes of limitations, meaning that many of Archibald’s alleged victims would not be able to sue the hospital. The case is likely to fuel efforts to pass the Child Victims Act, state legislation that would greatly expand the statute of limitations and create a window to sue for plaintiffs with decades-old allegations that are now prohibited by the statute.
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