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	Ruling in Child Sex Abuse Case Is Likely to Be Significant By Judy L. Thomas Kansas City Star May 16, 2011 http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/15/2877675/ruling-in-child-sex-abuse-case.html A three-judge appeals court panel on Thursday heard arguments in a child sex abuse case that could clarify how much time victims have before suing their accused molesters. "This will be an extremely significant ruling," said Rebecca Randles, an attorney representing the alleged victim. "It will either provide some victims of child sexual abuse access to the courts or it could close the door permanently for them." The case involves a lawsuit filed in federal court by a Kansas City man who said he was sexually abused by his high school music teacher from 1992 to 1995 when he was a student in the Logan-Rogersville School District in southwest Missouri. In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in 2008, Adam Walker alleged that Bradley Barrett repeatedly abused him from the time he was 15 through his high school years. Walker also sued the school district and high school principal, saying school officials knew or should have known about the abuse and failed to take action. A federal magistrate dismissed the lawsuit last year, ruling that because the abuse allegedly occurred in the 1990s, it fell under a 1990 Missouri statute that prohibited action from being taken more than five years past the victim's 18th birthday or up to three years after an act of injury was discovered. The judge said Walker should have determined by the time he was 18 that he had suffered injury from the alleged abuse. Walker was 30 when the case was filed. The 1990 statute was amended in 2004 to allow lawsuits to be filed up to 10 years after the victim's 21st birthday. At Thursday's hearing before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Randles said the federal magistrate had erred in dismissing Walker's case. She said Walker didn't determine he had been injured by the abuse until 2007. "He filed his lawsuit at the age of 30," she said. "Therefore, there is no statute of limitations bar." Steve Mirakian, Barrett's attorney, agreed with the federal magistrate that Walker had waited too long to file his lawsuit. Gerard Noce, who represented the school district and high school principal, noted that the magistrate had found that the child sex abuse statute does not implicate his clients — only the alleged abuser. Barrett left the school district in 1997 and is living in Iowa. He worked as an assistant music professor at the University of Northern Iowa, leading a men's glee club, but was fired after Walker's lawsuit was filed. To reach Judy L. Thomas, call 816-234-4334 or send email to jthomas@kcstar.com.
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