NASHVILLE (TN)
Nashville Tennessean
February 1, 2019
By Holly Meyer
The sexual abuse started when Scott Walker was 11 years old.
Walker says a young man who befriended him in the late 1980s in their Murfreesboro neighborhood repeatedly raped him until he was 12. But Walker kept quiet and turned to alcohol.
More than a quarter of a century would pass before Walker, then a few years sober, would report the sexual abuse to police. But by then it was too late. The crime was too old to prosecute, the local authorities would tell him.
So eventually, Walker, who is the president of WGNS radio in Murfreesboro, went to his state lawmakers and asked them to help him change the law by eliminating the statute of limitations on child felony sex abuse crimes in Tennessee. Statutes of limitations, intended to protect people from unfair prosecution, put an expiration date on pursuing legal action.
Unbeknownst to Walker, it would not be long before other ordinary Tennesseans would start their own fights for the same change he wanted.
But Walker’s solo quest is what put him in front of panels of lawmakers last spring, recounting the sexual trauma he suffered as a child and the 20-plus years of drinking that followed. His testimony helped. The Tennessee General Assembly directed a state commission to study the matter and report back.
“I’m glad that I was able to give words to hopefully make a difference,” Walker said in a recent interview.
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