How many sex criminals are walking the streets because Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Weitz & Luxenberg) cares more about his law firm than he does about crime victims? As The Post’s Ken Lovett reported yesterday, state criminal-justice officials have identified 332 sex fiends who’ve been fingered by DNA evidence - but who can’t be prosecuted because of the five-year statute of limitations on sex crimes.

And why hasn’t that statute of limitations been lifted - as Gov. Pataki has been asking since 2001, with the support of DAs across the state? Because Silver refuses to allow his Democratic-controlled body to even consider such a measure - which has been passed overwhelmingly by the GOP-dominated state Senate. Silver won’t consider lifting the statute of limitations in criminal cases unless Pataki and the Senate agree also to remove the time limit on bringing a civil lawsuit, seeking financial damages, in sex cases.

That’s a prospect over which the trial-lawyer lobby, with visions of dollar signs dancing in its head, has been drooling for years. And the trial-lawyer lobby has no better friend in Albany than Sheldon Silver. Not for ideological reasons, either. Since 2002, Silver has been “of counsel” to Weitz & Luxenberg, arguably New

York’s biggest personal-injury law firm. It pays him a salary estimated by those in the know at $1 million a year - or more. Unfortunately, estimates are all that’s
available. Silver won’t say how much he earns - in fact, he won’t release his tax returns. He won’t say why he was hired, nor what exactly he does for the firm.

But it’s pretty obvious just what Weitz & Luxenberg - and every other tort-law firm - has gotten from Sheldon Silver. He opposes tort reform in Albany. And that’s all it takes to kill reform. Thus, the firm benefits directly from Sheldon Silver’s actions. It’s an appalling conflict of interest. Consider: It took an act of Congress last year to overturn a 1924 New York state law that held automakers and leasing firms responsible for accidents involving their vehicles, no matter who was at the wheel.

It was known as an “unlimited vicarious liability law” and, by 2003, New York was the only state to still have one on the books. It cost taxpayers $130 million a year and drove some 20 car-leasing firms from the state. But the tort lawyers loved it, because it was a cash cow for them.

When it comes to the sex-crimes time limit, Silver argues that economic justice sometimes is the only kind available to victims, citing the O.J. Simpson case.
Yet Silver’s roadblock guarantees that sex-crime victims have a diminished chance of seeing their attackers brought to justice.

He knows the state Senate won’t ever consider lifting limits on civil lawsuits - nor should it. That would be setting up another buffet for the tort lawyers.
As Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s staff has noted, Silver’s proposal would not only target perpetrators, but it would open the door to lawsuits against
business owners and the like.

But Silver won’t consider anything else. Even if it means that rapists and molesters go free. Last year, Speaker Silver similarly refused to allow the Assembly even to consider penalties for illegal gun-trafficking - until this page publicly shamed him into doing so. Now he’s up to his old tricks - but instead of criminals benefiting, it’s his tort-lawyer buddies.

For shame, Mr. Silver. For shame.