ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) — A growing number of advocacy organizations are calling on New York Governor Kathy Hochul to initiate a special session that would force lawmakers to consider a bill that would amend the state’s sexual assault and rape law.
“You think they’d have more concern, but they don’t,” Gary Greenberg, the CEO of Protect NY Kids Inc., said. “Get back to Albany and fight for victims. Do your job.”
Advocates like Greenberg cite a gap in state law that makes it difficult for alleged victims of sexual assault to seek justice if they are “voluntarily intoxicated.”
“When the victim or the alleged victim takes alcohol and drugs in New York state, it doesn’t make them incapable of consent,” Greg Rinckey, a founding partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC, explained.
Lawmakers have tried to close the loophole since 2019. The Senate passed a bill that would do so numerous times, but Speaker Carl Heastie never brought it up for a vote on the Assembly floor. He told WTEN on Friday that there were not enough votes for the legislation to pass.
“There is absolutely no good reason that the Assembly cannot come to Albany for a day, discuss it on the floor, and have a vote,” Sonia Ossorio, the Executive Director of Women’s Justice NOW, said. “The governor has the power to call a special session and to call the Assembly back for a day.”
Governor Hochul, a Democrat who is running for reelection, has not signaled that she will call lawmakers back to Albany for a special session.
“That is a national law. Title IX applies to all universities, and that is why it is crystal clear to me that a university that gathers information about a case like this, and the law says you cannot disclose this information. This is deeply flawed,” Governor Hochul said on Friday. “But here in New York, we’ll work with the Legislature. The timing will be resolved, but at minimum, I would say this is something we could easily take up early in the session.”
