MERRICK, N.Y. – Beginning within the Eighties, New York regulation enforcement and well being officers fielded sexual abuse complaints from the younger sufferers of a revered pediatrician who ran his observe out of a basement workplace in his dwelling on Lengthy Island.
However Stuart Copperman was by no means charged with any crime, and it was solely as he approached retirement in 2000, on the age of 65, that he was stripped of his medical license over the complaints.
Now, 25 years later, greater than 100 of his former sufferers have some vindication of their yearslong battle: a courtroom has ordered him to pay a complete of $1.6 billion.
The Rev. Debbi Rhodes, who was awarded $25 million, says the completion of the litigation in late March in state Supreme Court docket introduced a mixture of reduction and frustration.
“I’m undecided if he’s going through justice. He type of acquired away with it for all these years,” the 63-year-old Episcopal priest in Las Vegas stated by telephone. “However to have a courtroom say, definitively, ‘I imagine you.’ To listen to that — that’s heavy medication proper there.”
A Manhattan lawyer who has represented Copperman over time didn’t reply to a number of messages looking for remark in latest days.
Copperman has steadfastly denied the allegations, suggesting he was merely being “thorough” in his examinations, which his former sufferers say have been usually performed after he had ushered their mother and father out of the room.
A prolonged historical past of complaints
A few of the ladies filed complaints with native police and medical boards over time, however no legal prices or disciplinary actions have been ever imposed, in response to Rhodes’ lawsuit and others. Then a state medical board revoked his license after listening to from six accusers.
Statute of limitations legal guidelines, nonetheless, prevented Copperman’s accusers from submitting lawsuits till passage of New York’s Child Victims Act, a 2019 regulation that briefly allowed folks to file fits over sexual abuse they suffered way back as kids.
The Catholic Church and different main establishments have reached huge settlements to resolve sexual misconduct claims, however legal professionals for the ladies say their litigation has resulted in one of many largest cumulative awards towards a single particular person within the U.S.
“For many years, these ladies have been silenced and dismissed,” stated Kristen Gibbons Feden, a Philadelphia lawyer representing the ladies. “Now, they can’t be ignored.”
Copperman by no means responded to the litigation
The Lengthy Island courtroom dominated for the ladies as a result of Copperman by no means responded to the litigation. However a number of the particular referees, in assessing damages, stated they believed the ladies.
“The psychological scars from the abuse suffered by Plaintiff are profound and everlasting,” wrote William Bodkin in awarding $27 million to a girl recognized as “Jane Doe T.A.” in April 2024.
“Right here, there can solely be outrage at Copperman’s reprehensible conduct,” he wrote in Rhodes’ $25 million judgment in December 2024.
The final of the 104 awards have been handed down March 28, with quantities starting from $500,000 to $32 million, in response to Michael Della, a Lengthy Island-based legal professional additionally representing the ladies.
The ladies additionally sued native hospitals and well being care networks, however these claims have been dismissed.
‘No one can develop if they’re dwelling in disgrace’
Like most of the accusers, Rhodes says Copperman sexually abused her throughout routine visits at his dwelling workplace in Merrick, some 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Manhattan. She says the abuse began in 1968 when she was 7 years previous, and led to an consuming dysfunction and alcohol and drug issues at an early age.
Rhodes says she speaks brazenly and sometimes about her childhood trauma as a part of her ministry, which incorporates working with jail inmates. She nonetheless wrestles with anxiousness, despair and different psychological well being impacts.
“No one can develop if they’re dwelling in disgrace. No one can actually change,” stated Rhodes, who has two now-grown kids and whose husband can also be an Episcopal priest. “I’m not even positive you may love for those who’re dwelling in disgrace.”
The Related Press usually doesn’t identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted until they arrive ahead publicly, as Rhodes has.
One other girl who was awarded $27 million however declined to be named stated revisiting childhood trauma throughout her deposition was painful however, in a means, therapeutic.
“It feels good to know that somebody heard us,” the girl, recognized within the litigation as “Jane Doe A.W.,” stated in a telephone interview. “Folks now perceive the magnitude of what he did.”
Legal professionals for the ladies say they’ve retained a collections specialist to start pursuing compensation from Copperman.
However Rhodes and different plaintiffs say they’ve accepted the likelihood they might by no means see a lot, if any. Copperman is now 89 years previous and lives in South Florida.
“I’m undecided what justice appears like even when I acquired one million {dollars} tomorrow,” Rhodes stated. “For me, it’s about saying to different ladies who’re going through this that somebody will hearken to you. I wasn’t believed for a really very long time. Don’t keep silent. Communicate your reality.”
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Comply with Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
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