BishopAccountability.org
 
  A Matter of Time
Families Want Statute of Limitations Lifted in Sexual Abuse Cases

By George Jaksa
Flint Journal [Flushing MI]
March 28, 2005

FLUSHING - Patrick Antos and Anthony Otero got the chance in court to face the priest they said sexually abused them as children.

Now their parents want others to have the same opportunity.

Antonio and Elva Otero of Flushing and John and Lillian Antos of Mt. Morris Township are taking a stand in favor of the state Legislature lifting Michigan's statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases - the time in which such cases can be prosecuted.

The limit on prosecuting those cases is usually 10 years. The families want more time so other abusers can be prosecuted.

"Our children, Pat Antos and Tony Otero, had the opportunity in 2003 to put the man who sexually abused them as children behind bars," said Antonio Otero.

"We ask this question: Why should other men and women who were sexually abused as children not be afforded the same opportunity to prosecute their sexual abusers?"

In what became a notorious case, the Antoses and Oteros' sons accused former priest Jason E. Sigler of sexually abusing them while he served at St. Robert Bellarmine Roman Catholic Church in Flushing in the mid-1970s. Patrick Antos and Anthony Otero were altar boys at St. Robert while Sigler was a priest there.

The Genesee County prosecutor's office brought charges against Sigler, then 65, in 2003. Sigler was sentenced to 7-15 years in prison for molesting Anthony Otero, now 43, and his brother, a 39-year-old doctor in Washington state at the time.

Anthony Otero lives in Macomb County, while Antos, 43, is serving a prison term in Utah for armed robbery to support a drug habit.

Daniel A. O'Brien, the lawyer who represented Sigler in the Genesee County case, opposes changing the statute of limitations.

"In all those cases, the victims knew it happened and didn't come forward for 20-30 years until these cases came up across the country," O'Brien said. "Even their parents knew and didn't do anything about it. They chose not to file a lawsuit.

"It's simply a case of piling on in an effort to strike while the (Catholic) church has its back to the wall. In my opinion, the idea of creating a new law to sue the Catholic Church is rank anti-Catholic bigotry and an outrage that people are even thinking about it."

O'Brien, a Catholic, said he sympathizes with the victims and said the church took a "murky" view of priest-child sexual abuse in the past.

But, he said, if the statute of limitations were lifted for sexual abuse, statutes limiting lawsuits against automotive companies, hospitals and other institutions should be changed, too.

Randall Petrides, now chief assistant county prosecutor, handled the case against Sigler. Petrides said that although Antos was not a plaintiff, he was in the courtroom ready to testify against Sigler.

He said the county was able to prosecute Sigler, who left the priesthood in 1982, because the Michigan statute of limitations didn't apply since Sigler had returned to New Mexico for a time before the limitation kicked in.

Petrides said Michigan's sexual abuse laws have been liberalized in recent years, especially for first-degree sexual abuse cases, including rape, where there is no time limit.

"But we can't make the cases retroactive," he said. "We can't resurrect charges when the statute has already run."

Petrides said he does not oppose lifting the ban temporarily.

"I am not against it, but the situation would have to be looked at case by case to see if there is a particular reason why the case wasn't brought before now," Petrides said. "It's hard for both sides to recall details after a long time and to be able to build a case."

John Lazet, chief of staff to Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the current law could be changed by a simple majority vote of both the House and Senate and the governor's signature.

The Flint-area couples said six states have lifted their statutes of limitations on sexual abuse cases, and several others are considering such a move.

The possibility of repealing the law gained momentum in Massachusetts in February with the sentencing of Paul R. Shanley, regarded as one of the region's most notorious clergy sex abusers, according to the Washington Post. Shanley was sentenced to 12-15 years in prison for raping an altar boy in the 1980s. Officials there are still studying the issue.

David Clohessy, national director of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said at least six other states are considering lifting their statutes of limitations.

"We're very much in favor of this kind of reform," Clohessy said. "We think that extending or eliminating the statute is the single most effective step toward dealing with priest abuse in the future."

The Oteros and Antoses argue that sex-abuse victims need such closure as their sons received. They said victims often end up living dysfunctional lives that encompass drug and alcohol abuse, crime and broken marriages.

"Basically, we want to make it easier for the quiet, silent victims," John Antos said.

Both couples, once staunch Catholics, have left the church.

"I still read the Bible - both Spanish and English Bibles - and I pray as a Catholic, but what the (Roman Catholic) church did was destroy my trust in it," Antonio Otero said.