PENNSYLVANIA
Patch
By Pete Kennedy
February 7, 2013
East Whiteland resident Maureen Martinez is the president of Justice 4 PA Kids, an organization dedicated to eliminating the Pennsylvania statutes of limitations for childhood sexual abuse. A bill to do just that never made it to a floor vote in 2012 in Harrisburg, but she’s hoping 2013 will prove more fruitful.
She was a member of St. Patrick Church in Malvern Borough until 2011, when she learned that a priest there was among 21 facing allegations of sexual abuse.
She answered via email our questions about the legislative process, her goals for Justice 4 PA Kids, and what people should know about childhood sexual abuse.
Malvern Patch: If you could snap your fingers and enact one law tomorrow, what would it be?
Maureen Martinez: Abolishing the statute of limitations for any victim of child sex abuse in our Commonwealth. There are no statute of limitations for murder so why should child sex abuse be treated any differently? Also equally important is a civil two year window implemented to help identify current predators. In California, the window was opened for just one year and 1,000 new suits were filed which identified some 300 more perpetrators. Identifying more perpetrators helps protect children from being harmed in the future. Statute of limitation reform is for the benefit of every child no matter who they were abused by- an uncle, a coach, a priest.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.