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	Lawmakers Support Bill to Drop Sex Crime Deadlines Spokesman-Review [Olympia WA] January 31, 2007 http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=8584 A year after a similar proposal died quietly in the Statehouse, more than half the state Senate is co-sponsoring a local lawmaker's bill to do away with all deadlines for prosecuting child sex crimes. Under current law, the statute of limitations generally bars prosecution of child sex crimes after three to 10 years, depending on the crime. Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane, said society shouldn't diminish the trauma of child rape and molestation "by saying 'Oh, you missed the magic deadline' " for charging someone with a crime. Under his Senate Bill 5817, pedophiles - no matter how old - could face charges until the day they die. Victims of child sex abuse, including many from Spokane, have for years tried to get state lawmakers to do this. Last year, Rep. John Ahern got a pared-down version of the same proposal approved - almost unanimously - in the House, only to watch it die without getting a hearing in the Senate. An aide said Wednesday night that the issue remains Ahern's top priority this year. With Marr backing his broader version in the Senate and Ahern again backing a House version, local advocates hope this is the year the law is changed. "The victim lives with this the rest of their lives," said former Spokane County Prosecutor Don Brockett. "So should the molester." Local co-sponsors include Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley; Sen. Bob Morton, R-Kettle Falls; and Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane. Last year, defense attorneys criticized Ahern's proposal as too harsh, saying it would be difficult to provide a fair trial to someone trying to rebut allegations of a decades-old sex crime. For different reasons, both the state prosecutors association and the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs also had concerns. Both said that changing the law would give victims false hope of winning a conviction in cases so old that they're virtually impossible to prosecute. Over time, they pointed out, evidence is lost, witnesses die and memories fade. Marr said the burden of proof would remain the same, but documentation is getting better with time, and so is science's ability to find evidence. "Certainly, it's not going to make something a crime that didn't meet the standard of evidence before," Marr said. "It doesn't change the rules of the game. It just says we won't create an artificial impediment." Sex offenders were an issue in his campaign against then-incumbent Sen. Brad Benson, a Spokane Republican. Late in October, the state Democratic Party sent out a mailing blasting Benson for "vot(ing) to cover up sex crimes against our children." Benson, along with more than a third of the state House of Representatives, had voted three years earlier against a bill that would have added members of the clergy to the list of occupations required to report allegations of child abuse. Benson said he'd repeatedly voted for tougher sex-crime penalties, as well as for a narrower proposal that did include some clergy members in 2005. But he lost the race. Both Marr's and Ahern's bills this year apply only to crimes that have not already passed a current statute of limitations. If the statute of limitations has been passed, state lawyers have testified, it would be very hard - if not unconstitutional - to prosecute a case. No hearing has been scheduled on either the House or Senate version of the bill. Brockett said that local proponents are hoping for a joint hearing to minimize the travel burden on Spokane victims and advocates who want to testify. "You're either for the victim or you're for the molester," he said. "So let's see how they vote." Richard Roesler can be reached at (360) 664-2598 or by e-mail at richr@spokesman.com
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