Courts

Judge Comes Forward With Devastating Story Of Sexual Abuse At Rockefeller University

It's important that the judge is talking about the abuse he suffered.

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Rockefeller University (Photo by KaurJmeb via Wikimedia Commons)

In a frank personal essay published on Law.com, former Acting New York State Supreme Court justice Charles Apotheker details sexual abuse he suffered as a child. Apotheker’s abuser has been in the news a lot lately as the decades that Dr. Reginald Archibald, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Rockefeller University Hospital, spent allegedly abusing young boys has come to light.

In the article, Apotheker says he kept the pain and memories of the abuse in a 60-year-old “mental box.” But now with the investigation into Dr. Archibald’s actions, done by Debevoise & Plimpton, it’s increasingly clear that the hospital was aware of allegations against Archibald. Apotheker says that with the publicity, he’s been flooded with memories of abuse:

I remembered being taken to a hospital by my mother and being led into an examination room by this white-haired doctor. I remembered being alone with Dr. Archibald and being told to take off all my clothes. I remembered being placed against a wall naked with my hands extended out towards him. And then I remember the picture-taking. Pictures of my naked 13-year-old body, followed by measurements of my penis. Then it all went blank.

Apotheker notes that with the passage of the Child Victims Act in New York, adults who were victims of sexual abuse as children are able to file complaints against those responsible that would otherwise be time-barred. The trauma Apotheker suffered remains ongoing, as he discusses there are images of his abuse that, as of yet, remain unaccounted for:

For a long time, I used the distance of 60 years as a mental barrier to an otherwise traumatic event. But recently, I have become angrier. The false comfort that six decades brings has been tossed aside knowing that there are pictures—unaccounted for—that memorialize the trauma Dr. Archibald brought upon me. Pictures that Rockefeller University has yet to account for, but now admits that they exist.

Apotheker kept the secret of his a abuse for 60 years, but feels compelled to come forward now to satisfy his sense of justice:

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Throughout my decades-long career as a judge, I buried my own trauma as I came across victims in court who had faced similar abuse. I never told anyone what happened to me—not even my parents. But for the sake of justice, I cannot stay silent any longer.

There is still pain.

Pain in knowing that there are pictures out there, unaccounted for, of a 13-year-old me that were used, not for medical purposes, but for the sexual gratification of an institutionally protected pedophile.

Pain that Rockefeller University still has not revealed the complete truth about Dr. Archibald and the investigation it claims to have conducted 15 years ago.

Pain I carry for my parents, who had they lived, would have been racked with guilt for allowing this to happen to their child.

Though the judge has not revealed all of the specifics of any legal action he may take (though he does say Rockefeller’s apology is not enough and he is motivated to live long enough to see justice in the case), he acknowledges the difficult realities in any civil action:

Pain in knowing, as an experienced judge and attorney, that Rockefeller University and their insurance carriers are capable of continuing to abuse us, this time as senior citizens with limited life expectancies, in a cynical attempt to run out the clock, so that many of us will never see justice done.

Judge Apotheker should be applauded for taking the difficult and important step of coming forward. Having such a prominent member of the legal system talk about the abuse he suffered helps to destigmatize abuse and works to crack the cone of silence that all too frequently allows abusers to operate in the shadows for years.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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