WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic Standard
By Richard Szczepanowski, Catholic Standard
Friday, June 16, 2017
The Archdiocese of Washington – offering its support to a proposal that would eliminate in the District of Columbia the statute of limitations for prosecuting criminal cases of sexual abuse – has urged a D.C. City Council committee not adopt a companion proposal that would eliminate the statute of limitations in pursuing civil cases of sexual abuse.
“Retroactively eliminating the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits against private institutions does nothing to make a single child in the District of Columbia safer,” Kim Viti Fiorentino, chancellor and general counsel for the Archdiocese of Washington, told the Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety June 15. “Legislation that mandates comprehensive, ongoing, preventive and transparent child protection procedures and policies would serve our community well.”
Fiorentino was one of more than a dozen people to speak at a public hearing on the two proposals.
Bill 22-0021, the “Sexual Abuse Statute of Limitations Elimination Amendment Act of 2017,” would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for first, second, third, and fourth degree sexual abuse and for first and second degree sexual abuse of a child. Bill 22-0028, the “Childhood Protection Against Sexual Abuse Amendment Act of 2017,” would eliminate the civil statute of limitations for recovery of damages related to child sex abuse claims and would provide a two-year period for people with previously barred child sex abuse claims due to statute of limitations to bring those claims to court.
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