For more than four decades, the alleged misconduct of youth coach and school worker James “Jimmy” Collins went unaddressed in Mount Kisco and surrounding Westchester communities, leaving a deep and enduring wound for those who grew up under his influence. Collins, who coached baseball and worked with local children beginning in the 1970s, was sentenced on October 31 to 19 years in federal prison after being convicted in an FBI sting related to attempts to sexually exploit minors — a conviction that came nearly half a century after his abuse began.
One of Collins’ earliest Little League players, Greg Ardanowski, now an adult and advocate for survivors, first met him as a fifth-grader at West Patent Elementary School in 1981. What began as a bond forged on the baseball field later revealed itself as a pattern of grooming and boundary violations that went unchallenged by parents, community leaders, and institutions for decades.
Ardanowski’s experiences, detailed in a recent in-depth column and accompanying Local Matters Westchester podcast interview, describe how the relationship with Collins shifted over time from mentorship to manipulation. While Collins publicly expressed affection and camaraderie with local youths, Ardanowski and others later understood that what had been framed as masculine “horseplay” — including alcohol use, inappropriate touching, and coercive behavior — was sexual abuse.
Despite private concerns and informal rumors about Collins’ conduct over decades, formal accountability was delayed until much later. Ardanowski reported his allegations to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office in 2018, only to learn that Collins’ reputation for misconduct was widely whispered about — earning him the label, in one law enforcement official’s words, as “the most open secret in Westchester County.”
The legal landscape shifted with the passage of New York’s Child Victims Act in 2019, which temporarily lifted statutes of limitations that had previously barred adult survivors from bringing civil claims. Ardanowski’s renewed reflections on his past and a chance discovery of attorney Sarah Klein’s work — a former gymnast and survivor of the Larry Nassar abuse scandal — led to the filing of civil lawsuits against Collins and institutions where he had roles.
Klein, who runs the East Coast office of Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, helped unite a group of 18 local men who came forward as plaintiffs. Their cases spotlight how Collins maintained access to children long after early incidents and how community institutions failed to act despite repeated warnings.
Scott Roth, another plaintiff, spoke of the personal toll of the abuse and the importance of publicly confronting what had long been minimized or ignored. “I didn’t know how to handle it myself,” he said, “and when I heard about what Greg was doing, I wanted to put my name out there because I felt there was some power in that.”
The story of Collins and the subsequent legal actions have drawn attention not only to the individual harm inflicted but also to broader questions about community awareness, silence, and institutional responsibility. Advocates in Westchester and beyond argue that identifying and addressing patterns of abuse requires transparent reporting, proactive oversight, and support for survivors who come forward.
At sentencing, Collins offered an apology to those he hurt, but survivors and their attorneys have characterized such statements as insufficient given the scale and duration of the harm. Collins remains incarcerated, and some lawmakers are considering changes to statutes of limitations to prevent similar delays in justice for future survivors.
Manly, Stewart & Finaldi is the nation’s leading firm representing victims of sexual abuse by government agencies, physicians, universities, school districts, churches, and sports organizations. They are the lead attorneys representing victims of former Olympic Team doctor Larry Nassar and secured $880 million in settlements. They were the lead attorneys representing victims of former USC gynecologist George Tyndall, resulting in a historic $852 million settlement. They represented victims in the $660 million settlement with the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 2007 and more than $700 million in settlements against Catholic entities throughout the United States. They were the lead attorneys in a $140 million settlement with the LA Unified School District in the Miramonte cases. The firm has successfully recovered more than 3 billion dollars for its clients through jury verdicts and settlements.
