Victims Sexually Abused by Priests Would Be Able to Sue Decades Later under New Deal

By Susan K. Livio
Star Ledger
February 14, 2019

https://www.nj.com/politics/2019/02/victims-sexually-abused-by-priests-would-be-able-to-sue-decades-later-under-new-deal.html

State lawmakers announced Thursday they have reached an agreement that will replace New Jersey’s narrow two-year statute of limitations that childhood victims of sexual assault have argued for 20 years have prevented many of them from suing churches and other nonprofits.

The newly amended legislation would allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring a civil suit up until the age of 55 or seven years after they make “the discovery" connecting their emotional and psychological injury to the abuse, said Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, the bill’s prime Senate sponsor.

By maintaining a two-year statute of limitations on lawsuits, said Assemblywoman Annette Quijano, D-Union, the bill’s prime Assembly sponsor, “we limit their ability to pursue justice and we, ourselves, become perpetrators in their injustice.”

“We know how difficult it can be to come forward for victims of sexual assault. Often survivors need time to understand and even fully remember, what were the most traumatic moments in their life," Quijano said.

Secondly, the bill would grant victims — previously barred from bringing a lawsuit because they had run out of time under the existing law — a new two-year window in which to pursue their case. The clock would begin Dec. 1, 2019 and close Nov. 30, 2021, according to the announcement.

The legislation, (S477) also allows adult sexual assault victims seven years to file a civil lawsuit, instead of the current two-year time limit, Vitale said. This is a change long sought by sexual assault victims and most recently articulated by Katie Brennan, the state official who accused a member of Gov. Phil Murphy’s campaign senior staff of raping her in April 2017. The man Brennan accused, Albert Alvarez, was never criminally charged and has described the encounter as consensual.

Brennan filed a lawsuit against the state in January — within the two-year statute of limitations — for bungling their response to her allegation violating her confidentiality, failing to inform her of her rights and failing to investigate her claims. But she’s argued that victims ought to have more time to seek justice.

A hearing on the bill is scheduled for March 7 in the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Vitale said.

Expanding New Jersey’s narrow two-year statute of limitations has been a point of contention since 1998, when newly-elected Vitale said he was approached by Mark Crawford of SNAP, the Survivors Network, asking for changes to the law.

The lobbying power of the Catholic Church, as well as other nonprofits that would be affected, stalled the effort.

The logjam started to give way in August after a Pennsylvania grand jury investigated and released the names of 300 clergy members credibly accused of sexual assault. In September, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced he was launching a similar effort to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy within the Catholic dioceses of New Jersey, and any efforts to cover up such abuse.

Crawford expressed gratitude on behalf of the victims “who have been denied access to our legal system due to arbitrary and archaic statute of limitations. Victims of sexual abuse who have chosen to step out of the shadows to speak of their abuse will finally be heard."

“When our lawmakers come together in a bipartisan effort to pass these bills into law, they will have put in place the accountability and consequences necessary to enact true reforms which applies to all institutions,” Crawford added. “New Jersey will be a safer place for our children and families.”

The New Jersey Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops, issued a statement late Thursday offering conditional support for changing the law.

In matters that involve abuse that occurs after the law changes, both perpetrators and institutions should be liable, the Catholic Conference said. But, it said, churches and other institutions should not face the same legal exposure for cases in the past.

“We fully support the elimination of the statute of limitations prospectively for both perpetrators and institutions,” said Patrick Brannigan, the conference’s executive director. “We support the elimination of the statute of limitations retroactively for perpetrators, which would address Senator Joseph Vitale’s frequent comment about the need to hold accountable the 95 percent of perpetrators who are not clergy.”

Branningan also outlined steps New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses have taken since 2002 to demonstrate its support for victims. That includes training 3.1 million adults, children, employees, clergy and volunteers “to detect and prevent abuse,” and installing victim assistance coordinators who connect people with counseling.

“Since 2002, the dioceses have reported all allegations of abuse to public authorities, whether the person bringing the complaint is now an adult, no matter how long ago the abuse is alleged to have occurred, and whether or not the accused is living or deceased,” Brannigan’s statement said. Some $50 million in settlements have been paid, he said.

Earlier this week, the Catholic dioceses in New Jersey announced a new victim’s compensation fund for victims who were abused by priests as children. The fund is expected is aimed at reducing the number of lawsuits that might be filed once New Jersey repeals its two-year statute of limitations.

The New Jersey Compensation Fund for Victims of Church Sexual Abuse of Minors will evaluate claims of abuse and offer settlements to victims that will be paid by the diocese where the accused priest served. In exchange for accepting the money, victims will be required to sign an agreement that says they will not sue the Catholic Church.

A similar fund in New York has paid out up to $500,000 each to victims of some cases of priest sexual abuse.

On Wednesday, the five dioceses released the names of every priest and deacon “credibly accused” of sexually abusing a child over multiple decades. There are 188 names on the lists from the five dioceses. Of those, more than 100 are dead.

The grand jury is expected to identify many more priests.

Attorney Gregory Gianforcaro of Phillipsburg, who has represented hundreds of the church’s victims over 20 years, said his phone “has ringing off the hook. And I am getting calls from individuals who were sexually abused by clerics who are not on the list,” he said.

Between Pennsylvania’s grand jury actions last year and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday signing a similarly expanded statute of limitations law, it’s time for New Jersey to catch up to its neighbors, Gianforcaro said.

“I think that other (New Jersey) legislators are now seeing what Sen. Joe Vitale saw years ago: they are realizing something must be done to help all the victims in this state. This legislation is absolutely necessary,” he added.

New Jersey has been an outlier, noted Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault. New Jersey is among the 20 percent of states that declined to expand its statute of limitation laws since 2002, “the year that the Boston Globe’s Spotlight report thrust child sexual abuse by clergy to national attention,” according to Teffenhart’s statement.

“For years, survivors and victims of sexual violence have been denied justice because of New Jersey’s outdated civil statute of limitations. Expanding our civil statute is a common-sense, long overdue reform," Teffenhart added.

Vitale said the time it took to reach this point “has been frustrating over all of these years."

"The church and other organizations that opposed the bill for selfish reasons were able to convince some of my colleagues years ago this would have had some consequence for their ability to operate. None of that is true, of course,” Vitale said.

“The stories … have had a cumulative effect and we cannot prevent victims from having access to justice and recognition of what they went through. These were children who were raped. I am in awe of these survivors who have never given up,” he said.

The bill must be approved by legislative committees, then passed in both the Senate and Assembly before reaching the governor’s desk.

Murphy signaled his support for the legislation in a statement his office released mid-afternoon Thursday.

“Victims of sexual abuse, especially those victimized in childhood, deserve to find doors held open for them as they seek justice against their abusers," Murphy’s statement said.

“I commend Senator Vitale and Assemblywoman Quijano for their dogged pursuit of legislation to extend the statute of limitations,” Murphy’s statement said. "I further commend the advocates, who want nothing more than be able to heal the wounds of abuse, for the tremendous strength they have shown.”