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	Senator Seeks Tougher Statute of Limitations in Abuse Cases By Jason Flanagan Examiner February 6, 2009 http://www.baltimoreexaminer.com/local/politics/null39179729.html Al Chesley was sexually abused when he was 13, but the former NFL linebacker couldn't tell his horrible story for decades. Chesley, now 50, was abused by a Washington, D.C., police officer. "I wasn't able to talk about this to my mom, or my dad, who was a police officer," he said to state lawmakers Thursday after flying from California to Annapolis. "I couldn't tell him that it was one of his friends doing this to me," he said, his voice rising as he lost control of his emotions, as he described how it takes years before victims can seek justice. State Sen. Delores Kelley, D-Baltimore County, is proposing the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits against alleged abusers increase from 25 years of age to 50, and create a two-year window for retroactive claims previously barred by the current limit. "Victims don't wait around in silence, so they can file frivolous lawsuits, ... but live in fear of being named the guilty party and having their family torn apart," Kelley told the Senate Judiciary Committee. But extending the statute of limitations is not new to the General Assembly -- Kelley has put in two other bills in past years addressing this issue -- and lawmakers are still grappling with whether to double the current age at which victims can sue their alleged abusers. "We are convinced of how horrific these assault are, but what is the empirical basis that the claim of the majority of people can't come to terms with the abuse until they are 20, 30 or 40 years old," said state Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery. But the victims and their advocates say post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety grip victims who do not realize until they are adults that their problems stem from sexual abuse. "In most cases, these folks, when attacked, are at such an age their mind can't process it," said J. William Pitcher, an attorney representing the Child Victims Voice, a national advocacy group for child victims of sexual assault. "They don't know what sex or adult love is. What we have here is a broken system." But Catholic officials and other bill opponents say the legislation doesn't go far enough to protect children, and will open the gates of frivolous lawsuits against churches. "This proposal is unconstitutional, unfair and unwise," said David Kinkopf, an attorney representing the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Church officials also noted that the criminal statute of limitations for criminal charges never expires, and increased lawsuits may hurt their charitable efforts. "The Maryland legislation ... is part of a coordinated national lobbying campaign aimed at making it easier for trial lawyers to bring monetary lawsuits ... against the Catholic Church and other private institutions," said Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, of the Baltimore archdiocese, in a letter he wrote Thursday in the Catholic Review. There is a concern that the bill would not affect public school teachers, as the liability cap of a government employee is far less than that of a private individual. "I don't know how you're going to reconcile this bill with that law," said committee chairman Sen. Brian Frosh, D-Montgomery. Contact: jflanagan@baltimoreexaminer.com
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