Supporters Gear up for Showdown over Old Abuse Claims

By John Finnerty
New Castle News
March 31, 2017

http://www.ncnewsonline.com/news/supporters-gear-up-for-showdown-over-old-abuse-claims/article_c67728b2-15cf-11e7-b811-e78baaf52c60.html

With the state House poised to take up legislation to reform the state statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases, supporters are preparing a final push to make the bill cover old sex crimes and not just future abuse.

The state Senate unanimously passed a statute of limitations bill last month that would give victims until the age of 50 to file lawsuits against abusers or their employers if there were allegations of cover-ups.

Under current law, victims have until the age of 30 to sue for old sex crimes. The Senate bill also eliminates the statute of limitations entirely for criminal investigations of child sex abuse.

But controversially, the measure provides no retroactive relief. If the statute of limitations has expired on old child sex cases, the law change doesn’t help those victims seek justice.

The House judiciary committee is scheduled to take up the Senate bill on Tuesday. Ahead of that vote, supporters of an effort to get a retroactive window opened for victims of old child sex crimes will rally Monday at the Capitol.

The push for rewriting the rules regarding how long victims have to sue for child abuse reignited last spring after revelations that the Catholic Diocese of Johnstown-Altoona had covered up decades of abuse of children by priests. Monday, a busload of victims and their supporters is expected to travel from Johnstown to join the Capitol rally.

State Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks County, said that the Senate bill will likely be changed in the House. If the measure isn’t amended in the committee meeting, lawmakers will vote on whether to change it on the floor of the House, he said.

Rozzi said he hopes those changes include opening a one- or two-year window for anyone, regardless of how long ago they were victimized by an abuser, can file a lawsuit.

A similar window was included in a Delaware statute of limitations rewrite a decade ago, said Sister Maureen Paul Turlish. She is a nun from Wilmington, Del., who is a founding member of Catholic Whistleblowers.

‘MORAL ISSUE’

Turlish said she feels she must speak out for the reforms even if it means breaking ranks with church leaders.

“It’s not a theological question. This is a moral issue. I don’t need the permission of anyone,” she said.

Turlish spent decades teaching art in Catholic schools. “I was very comfortable,” she said. Learning about the church abuse scandals and the cover-ups surrounding them jarred her into activism, she said.

“Society has a responsibility to protect its most vulnerable,” she said.

Rozzi said the retroactivity is important because it will create a formal way for victims to get the crimes against them acknowledged openly.

“For most of these people, it’s about closure,” he said. “This is our way to expose the perps. At the end of the day, if you are raping a child or covering it up, you need to be held accountable.”

Business groups — including the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business, the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association — have joined the church lobby in opposing the measure.

In letters opposing the retroactivity provision last spring, the business groups called it “the antithesis of promoting stability and predictability in the state’s business and legal environment.”

While the business groups have weighed in, supporters of the change say the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the lobbying organization for the Catholic Church in the state, has been the most actively opposed to the move.

Amy B. Hill, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, said the retroactivity measure would “conflict with (state) Constitution.”

She added though that the church has taken steps to help victims.

“The Catholic community has a sincere commitment to the emotional well-being of individuals who have been impacted by the crime of childhood sexual abuse, regardless of how long ago the crime was committed,” she said.

The state’s Catholic dioceses have spent more than $16.6 million on support services for victims and their families.

“Millions more have been negotiated in settlements with survivors,” she said.

Lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, opposed to including a retroactive component in the reform bill, have echoed the concerns about whether it would pass Constitutional muster.

LEGAL DIVISIONS

Legal experts are divided on the question of retroactivity.

In a legislative hearing last summer, Bruce Castor, who was the state’s solicitor general at the time, testified that he believed the provision would be illegal.

He was joined at the hearing by St. Vincent College law professor Bruce Antkowiak. On Wednesday, Antkowiak said that Pennsylvania courts have been consistent over the years in making decisions suggesting that the retroactive provision proposed by Rozzi and his supporters would be illegal.

Antkowiak said the Legislature could extend the statute of limitations in cases where it has not run out. But absent a Constitutional amendment, he doesn’t think the Legislature can extend the period for victims to file lawsuits once the statute of limitations has expired.

“It’s very clear,” he said.

Other experts think it’s less clear.

That includes Kermit Roosevelt, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

“I don’t think it’s possible to be completely confident in what the (state) Supreme Court would say about this but my guess is that a window limitations law would be permissible under the Pennsylvania Constitution,” he said.

The biggest reason for this is that judges have usually viewed alterations to the statute of limitations as a procedural rather than substantive change, he said. Procedural changes are generally allowed, he said.

Roosevelt said that while it’s likely the law would be subject to a legal challenge, that’s also not always stopped the Legislature.

“If they think a law is a good idea, they will do it anyway,” he said.