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Arizona House speaker's bill on child rape is a total joke

By Laurie Roberts
Arizona Republic
May 21, 2019

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/05/21/house-speaker-rusty-bowers-bill-child-rape-total-joke/3749096002/

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers has touted his bill as significant reform. But it's a joke.
Photo by Tom Tingle

Opinion: House Speaker Rusty Bowers has magically come up with a bill that does absolutely nothing to help child-rape victims hold their attackers accountable.

A clap of the hands, if you please, for this year’s legislative winner in that coveted category: Most Impressive Sounding Bill That Does Absolutely Nothing.

Naturally, there were a lot of entries in this highly competitive category at the Arizona Capitol. But a latecomer takes top honors – a last-minute bill that would give child victims of sexual assault more time to sue their rapists and the organizations that enable them.

Specifically, until they turn 30, up from 20.

Never mind that the average age that child victims of sexual assault come forward is 52, according to Child USA, a non-profit think tank that works on child abuse issues.

That is, after all, beside the point.

Bowers' bill is about avoiding Democrats

This bill is aimed not at getting justice for child rape victims but at getting Republican Sens. Paul Boyer and Heather Carter to vote for a state budget, sparing legislative leaders from having to deal with – gasp! – Democrats.

So far, they are standing tough.

“Behind the scenes, they are making it look like this is something for victims when the reality is, it’s not,” Boyer, R-Glendale, told me on May 20.

Boyer and Carter, R-Phoenix, are vowing not to vote for the budget unless Boyer’s bill, which actually would help children and victims of child rape, is given a chance.

When it comes to childhood victims of sexual assault, Arizona is one of the most generous states – for child rapists, that is. Victims must generally file a civil suit by the time they are 20 or they are out of luck.

Boyer has proposed giving victims seven years to sue, but the clock wouldn’t start ticking until the person discloses the assault to a licensed medical or mental health professional. His original bill also included a two-year window to file claims for those whose statute of limitations already has run out, but he’s given up on that.

Even so, his bill was a non-starter in the Senate, prompting him and Carter to declare themselves holdouts on the budget until his bill is brought to a vote.

No reason to hear from child victims?

Enter House Speaker Rusty Bowers.

Late last week, the Mesa Republican suddenly was inspired to introduce his own statute-of-limitations bill, the one that gives child-rape victims until they are 30 to file lawsuits.

Bowers has touted the bill as significant reform, noting that victims over age 30 also  would have a year to file a civil lawsuit if criminal charges are filed. But that’s already state law. (See: ARS 12-511a).

Magically, Bowers’ bill was introduced on May 16 and put to a vote in the House Rules Committee on May 20, where no public testimony was allowed.

House Rules Chairman Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, said there was no reason to allow victims who were sexually assaulted as children to tell their stories.

No reason to allow them to explain why it takes decades for victims to acknowledge even to themselves what happened to them and to come forward.

No reason to allow them to explain why it’s important that they be able to hold their rapists and the organizations that enabled them accountable, if only to ensure that today’s children are protected.

Boyer and Carter aren't budging. 

Kern, channeling his inner insurance lobbyist, said Boyer’s bill would just “line attorneys’ pockets” at the expense of businesses.

“We have a constitutional right to protect business,” he proclaimed.

I’m not sure where it’s written in the constitution that businesses have a right to be protected when they harbor predators. But I’m pretty sure we have a moral obligation to protect children.

Do you really think the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church are now doing more to weed out child predators because they had a sudden crisis of conscience?

Apparently, our leaders do because Boyer's bill never even rated a vote. Bowers’ four-day-old bill, meanwhile, passed on a 5-3 party line vote on May 20 and now awaits a vote of the full House.

Boyer says he’s not budging on the budget until his bill gets a vote. Neither is Carter, who on Wednesday questioned why House Republicans had to go behind closed doors to talk about the bill, which she called a "sinister" attempt to kowtow to insurance companies and their clients at the expense of child victims of sexual assault.

"This is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t understand why we are twisting and turning the Legislature inside out to prevent victims from telling their story," she told me. "This issue is absolutely cut and dry. We should be standing with victims, not insurance companies or anybody else who is building a whisper campaign against it."

That leaves Republicans without enough votes to pass an all-GOP spending plan.

“(Bowers’ bill) leaves the vast majority of victims behind,” he said. “You may find one or two victims who may come forward in their 20s, but it just doesn’t happen.”’

Which, I’m guessing, is the whole point of Bowers’ bill.

The insurance lobby is more potent than I realized.

You’d think it would be a simple thing for Bowers or Senate President Karen Fann to put Boyer’s bill to a vote.

Unless, that is, they’re worried it might actually pass.

Contact: laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com




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