I was sexually abused as a child over 150 times — here at New York’s Empire State Plaza.
Discover what happened to me — and how you can help.
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Who Am I?
A child who grew up at the Empire State Plaza, and what was done to me there.
What Happened to Me?
How the abuse began, and how it continued for four years across the Capitol complex.
Why Did I Return?
What trauma does to a child's brain, and why return is not consent.
A Place for Children
A complex designed for children, and the State's failure to protect one it knew by name.
Why I'm Coming Forward
Accountability, truth, and standing up for other survivors.
How You Can Help
You don't need to remember me — just what was happening in those bathrooms.
Contact or Submit a Tip
How to reach out and help — submit a tip or start a conversation.
Who Am I?
My name is Chi Bartram Wright. I am 51 years old, and I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse that occurred on the grounds of the New York State Capitol Complex — when I was a 12, 13, 14, and 15-year-old child.
As a young child, I was known as John Wright. From the time I was six years old until I was 16, the Empire State Plaza was like a second home to me. My mother worked for the Empire State Institute for the Performing Arts — a state-funded children's theater. I grew up backstage. I took theater and dance classes every Saturday. I watched rehearsals with Tony Award-winning artists.
I thought I was safe there. And my mother thought I was safe there, too.
This photo was taken of me in late August 1986 — right before I entered the 6th grade — and just weeks before I was first abused on the grounds of the Empire State Plaza.
What Happened to Me?
In the summer of 1986, when I was 11, I woke in the middle of the night at Camp Chingackgook — an overnight YMCA summer camp on Lake George — to find an adult camp counselor molesting me. That abuse triggered hypersexuality — a trauma response I could not control. I started seeking out sexual situations because my brain and my soul were broken by what had been done to me.
A few weeks later, after I had turned 12, my mother started letting me come to her office at the Empire State Plaza after school. I would take the bus from school and spend my late afternoons there doing homework and exploring the concourse that connected the state’s buildings — featuring modern art, shops, restaurants, the State Museum, and the State’s children’s theater. And that's when a man exposed himself to me at a men's bathroom urinal across from the entrance to the children’s theater — less than fifty feet from where my mother was working.
That man groomed me to return to those bathrooms every day I was at the Empire State Plaza after school. For the next four school years, I was passed among men who were mostly state employees and sexually abused in unoccupied public spaces throughout the Capitol complex — multiple times a week, from age 12 to age 15.
"When sexual unfolding occurs prematurely and in a context of force, coercion, brutality and objectification, elements become intertwined that under healthy, developmentally natural circumstances, would not. The most damaging fusion of elements may be the pairing of terror with sexual arousal."
— Dr. Mark Schwartz, Clinical Psychologist and Trauma Expert, JSM Sexual Medicine (2020)
Why Did I Return?
You might wonder: How could this happen again and again?
As a child, I was groomed by numerous men to return to those bathrooms. And after the initial abuse, I developed what medical experts call hypersexuality — a trauma response where child victims compulsively seek out sexual situations as a way to cope with the psychological damage done to them. Hypersexuality is not desire. It is not consent. It is a severe injury to a child’s developing brain.
Child sexual abuse often makes children believe they are responsible for their own victimization. It makes them carry shame that belongs to their abusers. It silences them with fear.
I believed I was doing this of my own volition. That belief was part of the injury. Dozens of adult men — many of them state employees — chose to sexually abuse a recognizable 12, 13, 14, and 15-year-old child rather than protect me or report what was happening.
Returning again and again did not mean consent — it was a trauma response I could not control, a call for help. I did not understand that what was happening was a horrific crime that would have a devastating impact on my life.
A Place for Children
The Empire State Plaza was not simply a New York State government complex — it was a destination specifically designed for children. It featured tours for school groups, the State Museum designed for children's education, play areas, fountains, and an ice rink. And it was home to a state-funded children's theater where my mother worked.
I was a recognizable child there — the only child exploring the grounds almost every day after school for years, in my Catholic school uniform. Many adults would wave or call out, "Hi John!" Almost everyone who worked there knew me, at least by sight.
The State knew what was happening in those bathrooms. Security guards and police tried to raid the bathrooms on several occasions while I was inside. But when they passed by the toilet stalls, a 12, 13, 14, and 15-year-old child was hiding behind one of those doors, too.
The State later modified those bathrooms. But the State failed to protect me — a recognizable child whose mother worked on the grounds of the New York State Capitol.
Why I'm Coming Forward
I am coming forward today because I want the truth on the record. The State of New York must be held accountable for what happened to me in the spaces they controlled, they supposedly patrolled, under the watch of their employees, to a child they should have protected.
In 2021 I filed a lawsuit under New York State’s Child Victims Act because the State of New York needs to answer for what happened — for creating a place that was designed to be safe and welcoming for children but wasn't, for employing workers who knew and did nothing, for every time I walked through that complex and no adult protected me.
I want accountability, truth, and for other survivors to know they are not alone. The Empire State Plaza must become the safe space for children it always should have been.
My father, Dr. Nathan Wright, Jr., was a nationally known civil rights leader who risked his life riding America's first Freedom Ride — the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947. He fought for justice and equality at a time when it was dangerous to do so. Today, in my own way, I am speaking out on my own journey of reconciliation — seeking truth, accountability, and justice.
In July 2021, I returned to the Empire State Plaza with NBC Investigative reporter Sarah Wallace to chronicle the bathrooms, stairwells, and other public spaces where I was sexually abused as a 12, 13, 14, and 15-year-old child.
“I was abused in the Legislative (Office) Building, in the Justice Building, in the Egg (children’s theater) here, and in the bathrooms that run all underneath this majestic set of fountains… For me, this was a place that stole my innocence and raped my innocence and left me destitute emotionally,” I told reporter Sarah Wallace.
Watch the full NBC News investigation here.
How You Can Help
Did you work or spend time at the Empire State Plaza in the late 1980s?
If you were a state employee, security guard, maintenance worker, or anyone who frequented the Empire State Plaza during the late 1980s…
If you witnessed the sexual activity that occurred in the Empire State Plaza bathrooms — if you saw men gathering there, if you were part of security efforts to address the problem, if you helped modify those bathrooms, if you cleaned those restrooms — please come forward.
You don't need to remember me. If you remember what was happening in those bathrooms — that matters.
If you knew something was wrong but didn't know how to stop it or report it — it's not too late. Your recollections can help ensure this never happens to another child.
To those who were in positions of authority — security, management, administration, police — your testimony about what the State knew and when they knew it could be the difference between accountability and continued denial. Please speak the truth.
Help me get the justice I deserve. And help ensure the Empire State Plaza is a safe space for children. Please speak out.
Submit A Tip
Have something to share? Click here or below to submit a quick, easy tip — no commitment required.
Start A Conversation
Want to speak directly? Feel free to reach out to my lawyer — Seth Dymond at Belluck Law — with any questions, comments, or recollections.
Email
sdymond@bellucklaw.com
Phone
(212) 681-1575