HARRISBURG (PA)
Fox 43 News
Nov. 18, 2019
By Chelsea Koerbler
Four bills that will reform statute of limitations laws for child sex abuse survivors are headed to the senate for a vote. The bills were unanimously voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday afternoon.
Just moments before the vote, State Rep. Mark Rozzi, a democrat from Berks County, long time fighter for reform, sponsor of one of the bills, and a child sex abuse survivor himself address the committee.
“I believe it’s time we protect little Mark Rozzi in the future,” said Rozzi. “That it never happens to another child in the Commonwealth again.”
All three child sex abuse reform bills based the Senate Judiciary Committee. Following the votes Representatives Rozzi and Jim Gregory embraced as their partnered bills now head to the Senate floor.
“To be able to speak and make a difference for the people who are joining mark and I thrivers,” said Rep. Gregory, a republican from Blain County. “We were victims and survivors but now we want to thrive.”
Rozzi’s bill would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations and raise the age a child sex abuse survivor can file a civil suit to 55-years-old. Gregory’s bill would create a ballot question to amend the state’s constitution to allow survivors a two-year window to sue their abuser.
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