HONOLULU (HAWAII)
Honolulu Civil Beat
July 16, 2018
By Denby Fawcett
The state has again extended the statute of limitations for filing lawsuits in cases of alleged childhood sexual abuse.
June Johnson Cleghorn, 59, a Kailua mother of two, is urging victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits against their abusers.
Cleghorn did just that — and reached a court settlement in 2016 — after a teacher allegedly sexually abused her over a six-year period beginning in 1971 when she was a 12-year-old boarding student at Hawaii Preparatory Academy on Hawaii Island.
Cleghorn and others spoke at a news conference last week with her attorney, Mark Gallagher, to raise awareness that the state has lifted the statute of limitations to allow victims of childhood sexual abuse until April 24, 2020, to file retroactive civil law suits against their alleged abusers and the organizations that allowed the abuse to continue.
Gallagher says he is glad the governor signed into law the extension, but he wishes the window was open for a longer period.
“I think for certain kinds of crimes such as child sex abuse the statute of limitations should be lifted permanently,” he said.
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