CALIFORNIA
Mercury News
By Matthias Gafni
Contra Costa Times
POSTED: 05/18/2014
CONCORD — The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office charged Woodside Elementary teacher Joseph Martin with 150 counts of molestation, but because of difficulties with the law, it was much trickier deciding whether to prosecute his bosses for possibly failing to report the alleged child abuse.
Prosecutors say their hands were tied because the “mandated reporting” law’s language creates a narrow one-year statute of limitations window that had closed.
Tina Jones, a Concord mother of two alleged victims, and others, including the district attorney and Concord police chief, say the law’s restrictive wording stymies prosecutions. They say it should be reviewed and, if necessary, changed.
“For many of the families in this, it’s just another level of victimization … to have no legal ramifications for (district employees) is so frustrating,” Jones said. “I think a one-year statute of limitations is ridiculous.”
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