The Wall Street Journal - 11.09.2019

A12B| Wednesday, September 11, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

otherwise staid meeting.

“I’m allowed to participate in

the legislative process as a sur-

vivor,” Ms. Sullivan, a pediatric

nurse who was raped in 1988

when she was a New York high-

school student and later moved

to Florida, said in an interview.

New York law uses a $5,

spending threshold to distin-

guish between citizen lobbyists

and professionals who must reg-

ister. It defines grass-roots lob-

bying as a communication that

takes a position on legislation or

other pending government ac-

tion, and urges people to contact

decision makers about it.

Some of Ms. Sullivan’s bill-

boards showed pictures of

state senators and referenced

the Child Victims Act, which

increases the criminal and

civil statutes of limitations for

sex crimes committed against

minors and provided a one-

year window for victims to file

suits prevented under the old

statute of limitations. It was

signed into law in February.

Ms. Sullivan also hired a

plane to circle the state Capi-

tol with a banner saying #NY-

PASSCVA. Only some of her

billboards mentioned the

pending bill, and Ms. Sullivan

contends her spending on any-

thing that could be considered

grass-roots lobbying is under

the $5,000 threshold. JCOPE

says she has exceeded it.

According to email corre-

spondence between a JCOPE

lawyer and Ms. Sullivan’s at-

torney, David Grandeau, her

matter was up for discussion

by commissioners on Tuesday.

It wasn’t mentioned during a

public session.

Before the meeting, two

women dressed like characters

in the book-turned-cable TV

show “Handmaid’s Tale” held

signs mocking the commission

and read a story written by Ms.

Sullivan questioning why

JCOPE wasn’t focusing on other

matters of alleged corruption.

Mr. Grandeau called for

JCOPE Chairman Michael Rozen

to recuse himself because he

eight years for felonious assault

and 90 days for criminal-weap-

ons possession. The penalties

will be imposed concurrently

and will be followed by five years

of supervised release, he said.

Mr. Cedeno’s account that he

was harassed about his sexuality

didn’t excuse his actions toward

Mr. McCree and Ariane LaBoy,

another classmate maimed in

the attack, Judge Gross said.

Mr. Cedeno never denied

stabbing Mr. McCree and Mr.

LaBoy, who was 16 at the time

of the attack. Mr. Cedeno apol-

ogized for his actions in a

courtroom statement before

his sentencing.

“I regret it so much and I

wish that I could take it all

GREATERNEW

YORKWATCH

BROOKLYN

Boy Struck and Killed

By Car in Midwood

A 10-year-old boy standing

next to a bus stop in Brooklyn

was killed Tuesday afternoon

when a car jumped a curb and

hit him, police said.

The victim, whose name

hasn’t been released, was stand-

ing on the sidewalk at Ocean

Avenue and Avenue L in Mid-

wood at 2:43 p.m. when a gray

Lexus driven by 59-year-old man

crashed into him, police officials

said. The Lexus then ran into

building scaffolding on Ocean

Avenue, they said.

The driver may have had a

medical episode that caused him

to lose control of his car, an offi-

cial said. The crash was under in-

vestigation and no arrests have

been made, authorities said.

The victim was taken to a

hospital, where he was pro-

nounced dead. The driver had a

9-year-old relative in his car at

the time of the crash, officials

said. It wasn’t known if either

the driver or the passenger was

hospitalized.

—Katie Honan

UPSTATE NEW YORK

Man Who Killed Cat

Sentenced to Jail

A 35-year-old man who

claimed he was putting an in-

jured cat out of its misery has

been sentenced to jail for

stomping on the animal and

smashing it against a utility pole

in front of its owner.

Donald Birch Jr. was sen-

tenced Tuesday to 18 months in

jail, the Schenectady County dis-

trict attorney’s office said.

He was convicted of felony

animal cruelty in June for killing

his neighbor’s cat, a 7-pound

gray tabby named Smokey, after

it was hit by a car in August

2018.

A necropsy at Cornell Univer-

sity showed the cat’s injuries

from the car accident weren’t

bad enough to justify killing it

immediately, prosecutors said.

—Associated Press

back,” he said.

Mr. McCree’s mother, Louna

Dennis, who is suing the city

for failing to prevent the vio-

lence that led to her son’s

death, ran out of the court-

room screaming during a vic-

tim-impact statement read by

Mr. LaBoy’s mother.

After the hearing, Mr.

LaBoy was restrained by po-

lice during a scuffle outside

the courtroom. His family de-

clined to comment on the inci-

dent and he was released.

Ms. Dennis she said she was

pleased that Mr. Cedeno was

sentenced to prison. “Nobody

should be bullied, but my son

was never his bully,” she said.

Mr. Cedeno’s attorney,

Christopher Lynn, said the

sentence was too severe, and

he plans to appeal it.

Representatives of the New

York City Department of Edu-

cation didn’t respond to a re-

quest for comment regarding

Mr. Cedeno’s sentence.

“This was a sudden and

spontaneous violent act that

ended tragically,” said New

York City Law Department

spokesman Nick Paolucci.

“We’ll respond further in the

civil litigation.”

A gay Bronx student who
said he fatally stabbed a high-
school classmate after years of
being bullied was sentenced to
14 years in prison Tuesday.
Bronx Judge Michael Gross
sentenced Abel Cedeno after a
bench trial for the 2017 class-
room killing at the now-closed
Urban Assembly School for
Wildlife Conservation. Mr.
Cedeno, who is 20 years old,
was found guilty of man-
slaughter, assault and a weap-
ons charge on July 15.
The death of Mr. Cedeno’s
classmate, 15-year-old Matthew
McCree, was the first homicide
in more than 20 years at a New
York City public school.
Judge Gross acknowledged
the context surrounding Mr.
McCree’s death, calling his sen-
tencing decision a difficult one.
“The death of this child
should affect each of us pro-
foundly,” Judge Gross told a
packed courtroom in the
Bronx, where Mr. Cedeno, his
family and the families of his
classmates were present.
The judge sentenced Mr.
Cedeno to 14 years in prison for
manslaughter, in addition to

BYBENCHAPMAN

Student Gets 14 Years in Fatal Stabbing

Abel Cedeno, who is gay, said he killed Matthew McCree at a Bronx high school after being bullied.

KEVIN HAGEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

had done legal work on victims’

compensation funds. Mr. Rozen

deferred comment to JCOPE

spokesman Walter McClure, who

declined to comment on Ms. Sul-

livan’s case or divulge what was

discussed during JCOPE’s two-

hour private session.

“The law requires disclosure

to the public about who is lob-

bying their lawmakers and how

much is being spent on those

lobbying efforts,” Mr. McClure

said. “We have procedures for

handling potential unregis-

tered lobbying and treat all

people and entities allegedly

involved in that unregistered

lobbying the same way.”

If the commission moves for-

ward with its probe, Ms. Sullivan

would have the right to a confi-

dential hearing and she would

seek one, Mr. Grandeau said.

Kat Sullivan is a rape survi-
vor who says she spent $14,
on billboards, some of which
urged passage of a New York
law to give victims of child sex
abuse more legal options.
But the Joint Commission
on Public Ethics, a state watch-
dog, said that was illegal lobby-
ing because she didn’t pay the
$200 fee to register as a lobby-
ist. The commission sent her
letters during the past year, in-
cluding one that warned she
could be fined up to $25,000.
Rather than comply, Ms. Sul-
livan spent $19,500 on billboards
mocking JCOPE, saying she was
being improperly targeted. On
Tuesday morning she hired ac-
tors and a film crew to stage a
protest outside the commission’s

BYJIMMYVIELKIND

Rape Survivor Could Face Fine Over Billboards

A New York

watchdog

panel said Kat

Sullivan didn’t

pay a $200 fee

to register as

a lobbyist.

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