PENNSYLVANIANS TO GET STRONGERS SANCTIONS ON SEX ABUSE CHARGES AND LAWSUITS
Recent legislation giving victims more time to sue and police more time to file charges in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was set off by a new wave of reckoning over sexual abuse by clerics and priests in the Roman Catholic Church.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf accepted the statute-of-limitations bill from the Pennsylvania House with a 182-5 vote. It includes a provision that invalidates secrecy agreements in lawsuit settlements preventing child sexual abuse victims from talking to investigators.
“This has been a long and trying process, and we are finally at the finish line,” the bill’s champion, Berks County Democratic Rep. Mark Rozzi, told fellow lawmakers. “Justice is coming.”
Clergy Abuse Amendment Still Needs to Pass Legislature in 2021-2
Wolf’s office apparently intends to sign the Bills with a third provision that penalize reporters who fail to report suspected child abuse. A fourth piece of legislation also passed both chambers, a proposed state constitutional amendment to give now-adult victims of Clergy sexual abuse a two-year window to sue abusers and institutions. The amendment must pass the House and Senate again in the 2021-22 session before going to voters in an election.
End of Statute of Limitations for Prosecution of Child Abuse Crimes
Rozzi’s bill would put an end to any statute of limitations, in future cases, for the criminal prosecution of major child sexual abuse crimes. The current law limits it to the victim’s 50th birthday. Authorities would have up to 20 years to file charges in sexual abuse cases where young adults, 18-23 years old are the victims, as opposed to 12 years after the crime for victims over 17 in the current law.
For lawsuits, victims would have until they turn 55 to sue, as opposed to age 30 under current law, and young adults ages 18-23 would have until age 30 to sue, whereas existing law gives them only 2 years.
Governmental institutions, such as public schools, would lose immunity from lawsuits for child sexual abuse if the person suing was harmed by the negligence of the institution. One of the no-votes on the Statute-of-limitations Bill, Indiana County’s Republican Rep., Cris Dush, said his opposition was related to the changes in lawsuits. Dush said he was concerned about a flood of litigation based on allegations that could be too old to effectively defended against.
“In these cases, there are a number of law firms out there that are very willing to go out and hammer certain organizations that otherwise have been doing very good work for our constituents,” Dush stated.
Since the investigative grand jury report was issued in August 2018, Pennsylvania Dioceses have launched compensation funds and have been reporting the number and amount of settlements. Reports made it known that hundreds of Roman Catholic priests had sexually abused Pennsylvanian children over seven decades and that church officials helped covered it up.
About 2 dozen States amended their laws on Statutes of limitations this year.
