NY State Seeks to Dismiss Hundreds of Prison Sexual Assault Suits

New York State is attempting to dismiss approximately 500 prison sexual assault lawsuits by citing minor clerical errors in the filings. The state is leveraging archaic 1930s-era statutes to void cases brought under the Adult Survivors Act, effectively blocking survivors from seeking damages for systemic custodial violence.

The legal strategy, reported by New York Focus, targets lawsuits filed against the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). While the Adult Survivors Act was designed to open a window for victims of long-past abuse to find justice, the Attorney General’s office is now using the Court of Claims’ rigid filing requirements to shut those doors. For the state, a misplaced date or a typo isn’t just a mistake—it’s a “jurisdictional defect” that can erase a claim entirely.

Why is New York dismissing these lawsuits over typos?

The state is relying on statutes from the 1930s that demand absolute specificity regarding the dates and locations of alleged abuse. If a plaintiff’s complaint deviates from the official record, even slightly, the state moves to dismiss the case. This creates a paradox: the very trauma these survivors experienced often makes recalling exact dates difficult, yet the law treats a clerical slip as a total bar to legal remedy.

What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers.To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.https://t.co/az4ViQwgy1
— https://x.com/NewYorkStateAG/status/2104696012619305306

Prison Legal News highlights a particularly stark example involving a plaintiff named Ernastiaze Moore. Moore’s lawsuit was tossed because of a single-year typo in his complaint. The irony, as noted by the reporting, is that the same mistake appeared in the internal reports created by DOCCS staff themselves. Despite the existence of video evidence showing Moore screaming while being sexually assaulted by guards, Judge Catherine Schaewe ruled the typo was a jurisdictional defect that precluded the case from moving forward.

Who is affected by this legal maneuver?

The primary victims are hundreds of survivors of custodial sexual violence who believed the Adult Survivors Act provided them a guaranteed path to accountability. These individuals are often fighting a system that, as New York Focus suggests, works to make them invisible and shields those at the top from scrutiny.

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The scale of the litigation is massive. Konstantin Yelisavetskiy, a managing attorney at the law firm Slater Slater Schulman, represents over 1,200 people alleging prison abuse under the Adult Survivors Act. He argues that without a change to the underlying statutes, hundreds of survivors will be denied the day in court that the legislation was specifically intended to provide.

“Hundreds of abuse survivors risk being denied the day in court that the ASA was designed to guarantee them.”

Is there a legal counter-argument for the state’s position?

From a strict judicial perspective, the state’s argument rests on the principle of jurisdictional authority. The Court of Claims operates under specific rules that differ from general civil courts; if a filing does not meet the statutory requirements for “absolute exactness,” the court technically lacks the authority to hear the case.