Sex abuse survivors await Murphy’s signature on N.J. statute of limitations bill

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WHYY Radio

April 5, 2019

By Joe Hernandez

On a recent afternoon, Todd Kostrub was looking at a photo of himself at seven years old, back when he attended a Catholic school in Roebling, N.J.

“Just got into second grade when those pictures were taken,” Kostrub said in his living room in Surf City.

That year — 1974 — was also when a Franciscan brother in the Kostrub’s parish began sexually abusing him. The abuse lasted until 1986.

It took Kostrub years to accept that he was abused and disclose it to close friends and family members.

And when he finally decided he wanted to sue his abuser in civil court, Kostrub learned that the state’s two-year statute of limitations had already run out.

“You don’t have a voice as a child,” he said. “And then to be an adult and be told I don’t have a voice was extremely painful.”

Many victims in the Garden State may get their voices back if a bill passed by both houses of the state Legislature is signed into law.

The legislation would dramatically expand the statute of limitations on sexual abuse.

It would give child victims until age 55 or within seven years of realizing they were abused to file a civil lawsuit. It would also give survivors who were previously blocked from suing their perpetrators a two-year window to bring cases.

“It’s been introduced every voting session that we’ve had over the past 17 or 18 years,” said state Sen. Joe Vitale, D-Middlesex, the lead sponsor of the bill.

There had never been enough support for the idea, Vitale said, because of opposition from the Catholic church. Now, he believes politicians have had enough.

“To a person, they all knew that it was happening, not just in the church but in the Boy Scouts and other institutions, and individual homes for that matter,” he said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has said he supports extending the state’s statute of limitations, but he has not yet signed the bill.

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