A flood of sex abuse cases dating back decades will prod old memories, often affected by trauma, forensic psychologist says

• Changing laws around sex abuse statutes of limitations have allowed a flood of new suits.
• But intense questioning around memories and trauma has also defined some of the new cases.

Changing laws around statutes of limitations for sexual abuse claims has opened the door for thousands of new cases to be filed, but they could leave survivors dealing with vicious questioning in the courtroom around the retention and suppression of older memories.

In states like New York, New Jersey, and California, "revival statute" laws have been enacted where the statute of limitations laws are suspended during a window of a year or more, allowing more victims to bring otherwise expired claims.

But the legal developments — seen as beneficial for adult and child survivors of sexual abuse — have also set an arena where the mechanics of memory and trauma can be misconstrued or used against victims in novel ways, a forensic psychiatrist who has testified in dozens of sexual abuse cases told Insider.

"People naturally, as human beings, are wired to approach things that are pleasurable or pleasant, and to retreat from or avoid things that are painful, overwhelming, uncomfortable," Dr. Mindy Mechanic, an expert on trauma and PTSD and professor in the Department of Psychology at Cal State Fullerton told Insider.

"By nature, people try strenuously to avoid thinking about trauma, to avoid talking about it, to avoid engaging in memories of it," Mechanic continued. "And so the more you try to put it on a shelf and the less you are accessing it, the more dusty those memories might get because people don't want to remember them."

The scrutiny over these memories by defense teams could pose an even bigger challenge in the year ahead. Susan Crumiller, the founding attorney of the law firm Crumiller PC, previously told Insider that in New York, "we're about to embark on this litigation wonderland where everything's fair game for survivors."

In New York alone, the state's Adult Survivors Act has opened the floodgates for lawsuits against high-profile men recently.

Former columnist E. Jean Carroll is pursuing her civil sexual abuse case against former President Donald Trump after the window opened on November 24. Trump's lawyer in the case Alina Habba told Insider in a statement that Caroll "seeks to exploit the Adult Survivors Act," and denied the allegations.

In November, a Virginia woman accused billionaire investor Leon Black of brutally raping her inside Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion and leaving her in "excruciating pain," according to a lawsuit filed in a New York state court. Black's attorney said the allegations in the suit are false in a statement to Insider in November.

And in early December, five women accused Bill Cosby in a lawsuit of sexual assault and battery that they said occurred as far back as 1969. Cosby denied the allegations through his spokesman, per Deadline.

California, which changed laws surrounding the statute of limitations in 2016 and 2019, offers a fresh look at how defense teams may target old memories.

Mechanic recently testified for Los Angeles prosecutors in their criminal rape charges against actor Danny Masterson. At the end of the trial in November, Jurors were unable to reach a conviction on any charges from the three victims — all of whom were able to bring accusations past old statutes of limitations due to changed laws. But Masterson's defense attorney in the case frequently prodded at what they called "inconsistencies" in the three women's allegations, all originating from between 2001 and 2003.

"A person's statements can be affected by the recency," Mechanic said. "If somebody gave multiple statements over time and they were a hundred percent consistent from incident to incident and they looked exactly the same, the same details, the same order, and then to me that would seem like a carbon copy. That would seem like an apocryphal statement because we just don't narrate experiences like that."

The change in laws like New York's and California's necessitates a more fluid understanding of how memories work, Mechanic said.

"It's important not to conflate memory with what's in a statement," Mechanic said. "When we talk about inconsistent statements, that's not necessarily a reflection of memory because a person can remember more than they're able to explain in the moment, or more than they're willing to explain in the moment."

Mechanic also testified in front of a grand jury before disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein was put on trial for rape in Los Angeles. On December 19, Weinstein was found guilty and convicted on 3 of the 7 charges against him.

Throughout the trial, Weinstein's attorneys lambasted the women and their memories.

Ultimately, several of the victim-witnesses in the Masterson and Weinstein cases dealt with an intense dissection of old memories. Some of the claims brought by prosecutors resulted in acquittals or hung votes.

Weinstein was acquitted of a charge of sexual battery against Jane Doe 3 in his trial, and afterward, she said the verdict was exactly what she feared in coming forward.

"I spoke about my sexual assault which happened almost 10 years prior, and was expected to remember every detail that happened to me on the first interview," Jane Doe 3 said in a statement sent to Insider. "I was thrown in front of some of the best trained lawyers in the US and expected to hold my ground.

"Yet I have no regrets," she added. "I took the stand, stared into the eyes of my attacker for three days in a brutal trial, spoke my truth, and regained my power."