WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service
October 1, 2018
California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a measure Sept. 30 that would have extended the state’s statute of limitations for decades for childhood sexual abuse survivors.
The proposed measure would have allowed victims to file abuse claims until they are 40 years old. It also would have allowed those who have repressed memories of abuse to sue within five years of realizing the cause of their trauma.
In his Sept. 30 letter to the members of the California State Assembly, Brown said he vetoed a similar bill in 2013 and said his views on this have not changed.
He said the current measure is even broader than the one he opposed five years ago and “does not fully address the inequity between the state defendants and others and provides a longer revival period for otherwise barred claims.”
David Clohessy, until 2016 the longtime director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, and now a volunteer with the group, was disappointed by Brown’s veto.
“The civil window would have enabled thousands of suffering survivors to expose hundreds of wrongdoers who committed and concealed child sex crimes,” Clohessy said in a statement. “Instead, horrors will remain hidden and kids will remain at risk of more harm.”
“Governor Jerry Brown has again sided with the powerful against the powerless, with the guilty against the innocent, and with the oppressors over the oppressed,” Clohessy said.
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