SOUTH DAKOTA
SDPB

By JACKELYN SEVERIN

House lawmakers are discussing a measure surrounding child sex abuse cases and the statute of limitations in South Dakota.

In 2010 the South Dakota legislature passed a law tightening the statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse claims. Child sex abuse victims who are 40 years or older can no longer bring civil law suits against their alleged perpetrators. Represented Steve Hickey of Sioux Falls says the 2010 law had unintended consequences. He says many lawsuits that were in court during the passage of the law were thrown out because the courts applied the statute retroactively. Hickey has brought a measure that would allow those victims to bring those cases back to court.

Barbara Dahlen and her nine sisters say they were sexually abused by clergy at the Blue Cloud Abbey in eastern South Dakota during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Dahlen…