Editorial: Senate shields abusers

Times Union
May 08, 2017

http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/editorial-senate-shields-abusers/38008/

Our opinion: The state Senate’s Republican majority is effectively enabling child sexual predators when it refuses to extend the statute of limitations on criminal and civil action.

It wouldn’t be a legislative session without at least one news release boasting of what New York’s Republican Senate majority is doing to crack down on sex crimes. What should concern New Yorkers, though, is what the majority is trying to tamp down.

The Senate’s latest crusade is a bill that would bar low-level sex offenders from driving for ride-hailing companies, like Uber and Lyft. Yet behind the scenes, the GOP majority is doing its best to block even a vote on a different type of sex crime legislation — a bill to extend the statute of limitations on prosecution and lawsuits involving child sexual assault.

The ride-hailing bill would modify the just-approved law that allows outfits like Uber to operate in the state. The original bill prohibited Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders from driving for those companies. The new measure would add to the list Level 1 offenders — those considered to have a low likelihood of committing sex crimes again.

As potential crime goes, this is pretty minimal. The Senate is focusing on relatively low-risk individuals who would be constantly monitored on the job by technology that would record the driver, the fare, and the pickup and drop-off locations and times, making it unlikely anybody could get away with a crime.

Meanwhile, the Senate is going about its annual ritual of burying bills that could bring serious sex offenders to justice. One such bill, sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, would remove the statute of limitations on criminal prosecution and civil suits for future child sex offenses, while creating a one-year window for past victims to bring civil cases.

Through a procedural loophole, the bill was discharged from the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month without a vote — saving the committee members from having to take a stand on it. Now it’s before the Rules Committee, where it’s likely to languish, along with other such bills, including some sponsored by Republicans in the majority.

The reason: strong resistance from the Catholic Church, which has for years been dealing with scandals involving sexual abuse by priests and cover-ups by their superiors.

As the Senate stalls and obstructs, a new report sheds light on why such bills are necessary, and why organizations with a history of sexual abuse in their ranks don’t like them.

Child USA found that in eight states that extended their statutes of limitations on sex crimes, hundreds of predators have been identified, and more than 2,400 victims have filed claims — none of which have been reported false in the 13 years states have been doing this.

To put a fine point on it: Senate Republicans are happy to go after people who are considered a low risk of committing another sex crime. But they won’t even consider a law that would bring sexual predators who have escaped punishment to justice.

Now which, really, is the greater threat to society? And the greater injustice?