CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento
[with video]
STOCKTON (CBS13) — Victims of church sex abuse may get more time to sue religious organizations and those who abused them under a bill heading to the governor’s desk.
“It’s very exciting and we are very hopeful.”
Kathleen Conti is pleased the senate passed SB131. The Stockton woman says she was abused by a Jehovah’s Witness leader when she was a teenager, and a family member also became a victim.
“The only way you are going to stop pedophiles is to identify them and warn people—allow us as parents to know who they are within our congregations. Otherwise, how do we know? How can we protect other children.”
Lawmakers say the bill corrects a Supreme Court case that, because the statute of limitations had been reached, denied a narrow group of child sex-abuse victims the right sue religious organizations, private and nonprofit groups that employed their abusers.
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.