Governor Hochul Announces Opening of Covenant House New York's New $76 Million Facility in Manhattan

Table Of Content

• Column: How Santa Monica’s Rape Treatment Center revolutionized the way we treat victims of sexual assault
• Russell Salvatore accused of sexual harassment in lawsuit filed by former employee
• ‘Never happened before’: Key oversight officials leave as LAPD searches for chief
• Send Care and Support for Homeless Youth.
• She survived a deadly mass shooting in high school, then another in college
• At USC, arrests. At UCLA, hands off. Why pro-Palestinian protests have not blown up on UC campuses

Kite later contended that Father Ritter funneled more than $25,000 to him in cash, rent money and gifts, while the two were involved in a sexual relationship. "When Kevin Kite first came to Covenant House he claimed his life was in danger," it said. "We believed him. We placed him in a safe-house program. As part of that program, he needed a new identity." To protect him, Covenant House officials sent him to New York, where Father Ritter took the case. Tim Warner and Father Ritter never crossed paths -- until last week, amid reports of a New York City sex scandal. But he has also gathered his share of detractors, including those who say that Covenant House is a monument to Ritter’s own ego, and is far less effective than programs that operate on a smaller scale.

Column: How Santa Monica’s Rape Treatment Center revolutionized the way we treat victims of sexual assault

Sunday’s UCLA counterprotest was organized by the nonprofit Israeli-American Council, which on Thursday used social media to denounce pro-Palestinian demonstrations across U.S. campuses. Two deputies who were assisting private security at the venue arrived soon after and arrested the teenager. The arrest report said they recovered a 9mm handgun and spent shell casings that matched the bullets in the gun’s magazine. When Abarbanel needed to raise money to get the Rape Treatment Center going, women who worked for Lear — many of whom had their own experience with rape — put her in touch with the prolific fundraiser Sandra Moss, who was married to A&M Records co-founder Jerry Moss. Her great innovation, much copied now, was the creation of a 24/7 one-stop shop for victims, with medical personnel, therapists and detectives and prosecutors coordinating under one roof.

Russell Salvatore accused of sexual harassment in lawsuit filed by former employee

Ritter also has acknowledged using $140,000 from the tax-exempt trust to cover his own expenses and conduct his ministry. The trust, which most board members were unaware of, was created years ago with part of Ritter’s own salary. He said he was concerned that his critics would attack him for earning so much, so he used the trust to make his pay seem to be far less--$38,000, rather than $98,000. It also was revealed that Covenant House officials gave Kite a new identity by using the baptismal certificate of a 10-year-old boy who had died of cancer in 1980.

‘Never happened before’: Key oversight officials leave as LAPD searches for chief

Covenant House Texas breaks ground for its new location, expected to open in 2024 - Houston Public Media

Covenant House Texas breaks ground for its new location, expected to open in 2024.

Posted: Thu, 09 Mar 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

It also marked the start of an important alliance between the Rape Treatment Center and Hollywood. Abarbanel consulted on shows like “Lou Grant,” “Hill Street Blues, “Cagney & Lacey,” “L.A. Law” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” all of which helped nudge the culture away from victim blaming toward a more compassionate view of the trauma of rape. An alleged rapist would be charged only if a victim had demonstrated physical resistance “to the utmost,” as the law puts it.

He has trained with and performed for both the Bob Baker Marionette Theater and the Jim Henson Company. He also served as a campaign media director for a congressional candidate in the 2020 elections. “The Center is devoted to the academic study of Israel and has no ties to the Israeli government,” Waxman wrote. Further, Waxman singled out one of the groups he said is organizing campus protests, Students for Justice in Palestine. A GoFundMe campaign that Carr said was not affiliated with IAC purported to support the UCLA counterdemonstration. The head of the Israeli-American Council, Elan Carr, confirmed Sunday that the group had organized the counterprotest at UCLA, as well as others at demonstrations across the country, and had hired multiple security companies to patrol the Los Angeles event.

She survived a deadly mass shooting in high school, then another in college

Ms. McConville explained that Covenant House was dealing with a small youth group who were not prepared at this time of their lives to change their lifestyles. In six years of operation in Toronto, she said, they have helped over 15,000 kids who were disconnected from society. A third of these kids are involved in prostitution, drugs, and petty theft and are “too far gone to be helped,” she added.

Covenant House Founder Steps Down in Sex Scandal

These grants will also support the retention of CHNY's 236 existing jobs and the creation of 25 new jobs. Lend your voice and advocate for the rights of youth facing homelessness and survivors of trafficking. John G. Woolsey, of the Christian and Family Office of the Archdiocese of New York, stated that it was “repugnant and outrageous” to give out condoms to street kids in order to prevent AIDS.

At USC, arrests. At UCLA, hands off. Why pro-Palestinian protests have not blown up on UC campuses

He denied the charges and was cleared of criminal wrongdoing, but an internal probe concluded he tried to lure 15 young men into sex acts and used charitable funds to set up a secret $1 million trust. In response to the allegations, the city’s Economic Development Corporation has slowed the process of selecting a developer for a project that is to include a new national headquarters for Covenant House. Covenant House survived under new leadership, and continues to serve homeless and runaway youth. Ritter’s team put Kevin Kite’s estranged father on TV to state that his son had a “history of lying.” When the investigation seemed stalled, The New York Times editorialized that Morgenthau was subjecting Ritter to a “slow bleed” that could be “ruinous” to Covenant House and its good works. Ritter founded Covenant House in 1972 as a small facility for homeless teens in the crime- and drug-ravaged East Village.

If a victim hadn’t fought back and gotten injured, she couldn’t credibly claim she was raped. To inquire about living at Covenant House, you can walk through the front door and speak with the staff. Myles, who goes by the stage name Myles T. Jordan, is one of more than a hundred young people ages 18 to 21 living at the brand new Covenant House on West 41st Street in Hell's Kitchen.

Father Ritter resigned from the agency in 1990 amid allegations that he had sexual relationships with young men at the shelter and concerns about a secret trust fund, although after four investigations, he was never charged with a crime. In 1991, a lawsuit filed by one accuser was thrown out because the statute of limitations had expired. The New York Times reported that a third man, Darryl Bassile, 31, had approached the paper in mid-January to say he too had had sexual relations with Ritter when a youth. He had complained earlier to the Franciscan friary in Union City, New Jersey, after he heard of Kite's charges, and it started an investigation. A fourth accusation was made by Paul Johnson, 33, an admitted felon who claimed that he was involved with Ritter for six years. At least 11 Minneapolis police officers were disciplined following the unrest after the murder of George Floyd, newly released reports show.

Broken Covenant: A Homeless Youth Organization's Assault on Trafficking Is Making Women More Vulnerable - The Appeal

Broken Covenant: A Homeless Youth Organization's Assault on Trafficking Is Making Women More Vulnerable.

Posted: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 08:00:00 GMT [source]

The male prostitute, identified as Kevin Kite, apparently was given copies of Tim Warner's birth and baptismal certificates. According to the New York Post, Kite has said Covenant House officials gave him birth and baptismal certificates in Tim Warner's name, telling him that Tim was a child from Jamestown who died of cancer at age 10. Father Ritter said today he was stepping down temporarily amid a flurry of accusations that he had sex with some of the young men he tried to rescue. "I am profoundly saddened by the allegations against me and the need to deny them constantly. I have no way of proving my innocence. My accusers cannot establish my guilt," he said in a statement.

The survey also showed smaller departments with fewer than 50 officers are still struggling with a higher rate of resignations and retirements. Individual departments are turning that corner at different rates, however, according to Wexler, who noted many are still struggling to attract and keep officers. Mayor Karen Bass had been hoping to restore the size of the LAPD to 9,500 officers by the end of June. UC also joined the anti-apartheid divestment campaign against South Africa in the 1980s, after thousands of student protesters boycotted classes, erected shantytowns to dramatize the plight of Black South Africans and prompted a police crackdown and arrests at UC Berkeley.

The regent was not in favor of moving to dismantle protest encampments, saying escalation would be unwise, but added that board members planned to have discussions this summer about what should be the proper time, place and manner of protests. University leaders already have spoken out against targeted action against Israel, including in a 2018 statement by all 10 campus chancellors that rejected an academic boycott and endorsed continued engagement with both Israeli and Palestinian colleges, universities and colleagues. In 2020, UC became the nation’s largest university to divest from fossil fuels, a five-year effort undertaken to fight climate change by shifting funds into more environmentally sustainable investments, such as wind and solar energy. UC sold more than $1 billion in fossil fuel assets from its pension, endowment and working capital pools and surpassed its five-year goal of investing $1 billion in clean energy projects. At previous UCLA demonstrations, hundreds of students, faculty and alumni gathered without arrests or suspensions. At USC, police in riot gear arrested 93 pro-Palestinian protestors, while UCLA sent in observers who kept their hands off students in a peaceful encampment.

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the opening of Covenant House New York's new $76 million facility that will provide housing and supportive services to youth who are experiencing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. The new 80,000 square foot facility is the first purpose-built facility in the 50-year history of Covenant House serving young people in New York City. The facility features 1,500 square feet of outdoor space, six floors of residential shelter with up to 120 beds, and five floors of program space. The supportive programs include health and wellness services, workforce training, social case management, recreational activities, and advocacy and legal services. In February 1990, Covenant House founder and President Bruce Ritter was forced to step down in the wake of allegations of sexual and financial misconduct, beginning with the accusations of Kevin Kite, who accused Ritter of sexual abuse. Ritter resigned but was never charged with sexual abuse.[6] Soon after, more accusations surfaced.

Ritter resigned from the college, and began a new ministry on the Lower East Side of New York City. He recruited a fellow Franciscan friar, Father James Fitzgibbon, to move to this troubled neighborhood and initiate what he described as a "ministry of availability" to the poor. The Archdiocese of New York assigned Ritter and Fitzgibbon to the local parish, St. Brigid's Church. It had been designated as an experimental parish, in that it was structured around a team ministry. The Franciscans lived in a tenement building on East 7th Street, which Ritter described as a place where he washed his dishes in the bathtub and paid $90 a month in rent.