Editorial: Rozzi deserves support in tireless fight for justice

Reading Eagle
February 6, 2017

http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/editorial-rozzi-deserves-support-in-tireless-fight-for-justice

The Issue: A legislator reintroduces a measure aimed at broadening the rights of childhood sex abuse victims.

Our Opinion: Survivors should have the ability to go to court over what was done to them in the past.

We were pleased to see that state Rep. Mark Rozzi is not giving up on his long and difficult effort to broaden the rights of victims of child sex abuse. The Muhlenberg Township Democrat has reintroduced a bill that gained tremendous ground during the last legislative session. Despite being a Democrat in a chamber dominated by Republicans, Rozzi was able to get his bill passed by the House last year after years of futile efforts. But the provision that mattered most to him was removed from the bill in the Senate, and the clock ran out on the legislation.

At issue is the question of whether survivors may file lawsuits in cases that took place years or even decades ago. A competing bill introduced in the state Senate would give future abuse survivors a longer window to bring civil and criminal charges, but it leaves out the retroactive provision that Rozzi believes is most important.