Bid to extend time limits for sex abuse suits divisive

MICHIGAN
Detroit News

Jonathan Oosting, Detroit News Lansing Bureau

May 3, 2018

Birmingham — Victim No. 368, as he was called in a national settlement case, keeps his hair long to hide any sign of the faint scar. He got it roughly 40 years ago, when he says Brother Rice High School’s principal bit him on the ear and told him it would leave a mark for the rest of his life.

He keeps the belt buckles his alleged abuser gave him during a prolonged “grooming” period that continued long after he claims leaders of the Roman Catholic school in Birmingham transferred Brother Frank Luke Dalton to California following an admission he’d had a “wet dream” about the teen. He keeps the pocket knife, turntable, records and other gifts.

“I really just want to get rid of this stuff,” he said decades after Dalton allegedly spit in his mouth one night during a private “wrestling” session in the school cafeteria. Decades after he said Dalton, also the wrestling coach at the all-boys school, grabbed his testicles during another session in the adult’s car.

Now 55, Victim 368 — who does not want to disclose his name for fear it could further damage his life — is asking Michigan legislators to think about cases like his as they consider changing laws that place time limits on how long a sexual assault victim can sue or pursue criminal charges against their abuser.

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