By Tyler Whitley
Richmond Times-Dispatch
April 16, 2011
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/apr/16/TDMET01-governor-signs-victims-rights-bills-ar-976122/
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| Outside the Executive Mansion on Friday, Gov. Bob McDonnell ceremonially signed a dozen bills designed to aid victims. The legislation was passed during the General Assembly session and previously signed into law. Behind him were advocates and officials. |
As victims and advocates looked on Friday, Gov. Bob McDonnell symbolically signed 12 bills designed to help victims of crime.
One, arising from the slaying of University of Virginia student Yeardley Love, would allow someone in a dating relationship to get a protective order.
A second, stemming from Catholic Church sexual-abuse scandals, would extend from two years to 20 years the period in which a childhood victim of sexual abuse could file a lawsuit.
McDonnell already has signed the legislation, but he held the bill-signing ceremony outdoors in front of the Executive Mansion in conjunction with Crime Victims' Rights Week.
Every year thousands of Virginians suffer from domestic or sexual violence, McDonnell said.
"While no law can return all they have lost, we can, and must, do more to help them recover and move forward with healing and strength," he said.
"Since the beginning of man, there has been evil," said Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, one of several bill sponsors present at the ceremony.
Among the victims, Rosemary Trible, the wife of former U.S. Sen. Paul Trible and a victims'-rights advocate, recalled the agony she went through in 1975 when she was raped at gunpoint by a man who still hasn't been caught.
Other bills commemorated Friday will:
•allow a law-enforcement officer to serve an emergency protective order;
•require those convicted of child-pornography charges to pay restitution;
•allow GPS tracking for people on bond or as a condition of probation; and
•require that Standards of Learning objectives related to dating violence be taught in school with the family life curriculum.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said an initiative begun in his office can now be expanded statewide. The new law will allow a confidentiality program for victims of domestic violence to be extended to all jurisdictions in the state. The victims would be given post office addresses, so the perpetrator of violence could not locate them.
"We have come to understand that most sexual violence is perpetrated by someone known to the victim, that it often takes place within relationships, and that again, while women are the predominant victims, unfortunately this violence often crosses gender lines," said Kristi VanAudenhove, co-director of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance.
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