Cara Dean was 12 when she started babysitting the kid next door – and the child’s dad began molesting her, she said. Her family never suspected anything was wrong — despite the frequency of the time alone she spent with the much-older man. Dean is now suing her alleged abuser, Joseph Lewin of Scarsdale, under the Child Victims Act. “There are so many stories of terrible abuse that we haven’t heard because the focus has been too narrow,” said her lawyer, Weitz and Luxenberg’s Samantha Breakstone, whose firm is planning 1,300 CVA lawsuits. “We have tons of church cases, we have tons of teacher cases, we have Boy Scout cases, but that is not the only story, and nor should it be.” Lewin could not be reached. Cara told her story to The Post’s Kathianne Boniello:
It started very innocently. It was, ‘Give me a back massage.’ It was just suggested. When I got comfortable with that, it was a lower back massage. When I got comfortable with that, off came the pants.
It progressed rather quickly after that. As a 12-year-old girl, I didn’t understand that kind of attention wasn’t good attention. It wasn’t talked about at home. I have a sibling who was born with some challenges, and that took everyone’s attention away from me. He lived next door and he had perfect access.
At first it was, “Don’t tell anybody. This is special, and if you tell anybody you’ll ruin it.”
He took me to his office, either after hours or on a weekend, and at the time I think it’s fabulous that I have attention being paid to me. He had a Rolls Royce, and he would periodically stop and say, “Do you want a ride?” — and abuse me on the way to school.
He passed me along to his brother.
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My relationship with my parents was in such a bad place I didn’t feel like I could tell anyone. The only way that it ended is I left the state when I was 17.
If it happens to you, please come forward. Please have the courage and belief in yourself to come forward. No matter what the abuser tells you, they’re telling you what they want you to hear to keep you in the situation you’re in. Reach out, get out, because once you get out, you can breathe.
I didn’t have children because I didn’t feel like I could protect them from people like him. I’ve been through a number of marriages. There was a time when I couldn’t hold a job, and there were certainly drugs involved.
I heard about the CVA in February — it is something I’ve been working and praying for since I was 17 years old.
To know I can finally have the opportunity to shine light on what these people actually did … I’ve been asking for that for many years. It feels amazing. It’s empowering.