By Sara Ganim
The Patriot-News
October 18, 2011
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/10/pennsylvania_legislators_push.html
It took 30 years for former Philadelphia Eagle Al Chesley to talk about being abused at age 13 by a neighborhood cop in Washington D.C.
By the time he felt comfortable, there was no legal redress because the time limit in which his abuser could be charged had expired.
It was the same for two women, who first talked this summer about decades-old abuse, they alleged, at the hands of a former Harrisburg deacon.
And that’s the case for several people who have come forward in the Philadelphia Diocese’s sex abuse cases.
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| Pennsylvania state Capitol |
Since 2005 — when the first charges were brought against clergy in the Philadelphia Archdiocese — two bills that would expand rights for adults who were molested as kids have been in limbo in the Legislature.
Each would expand the statute of limitations so that adult victims who had kept abuse secret for decades could come forward in criminal or civil court. Under existing law, police can’t prosecute a case if the alleged victim was older than 23 in 2002.
Versions of those bills have been introduced several times in the last six years and never made it to the floor for a vote.
“I’m frustrated that we have to be here again,” said Philadelphia state Rep. Michael P. McGeehan. “I’m ashamed, as a member of this House that there is an indifference. And it’s a cold reality that the House hasn’t acted. And I’m perplexed as to the reasons why.”
McGeehan spoke Monday as part of a news conference held by Justice4PAkids, which has been lobbying the issue on behalf of child sex abuse victims who are now grown up.
The two bills that would expand the statute of limitations are sitting in the House Judiciary Committee, where a spokesperson for the chairman, Rep. Ron Marsico, R-Lower Paxton Township, said no hearing has been scheduled.
A third bill, introduced Sept. 27, would make it a crime for people with knowledge of abuse to fail to report it to police. And a fourth bill, introduced Monday, would expand victim rights in civil court.
“It’s unforgivable that we haven’t acted in a more timely fashion,” McGeehan said.
Chesley, a linebacker who played with the Eagles from 1979 to 1982, said that like many other child victims, his bottled-up abuse ruled much of his life. The experience even colored his years of professional football and a Super Bowl appearance.
“We can’t keep this in the closet,” he said. “Today, I’m on the right track all because I found the courage to free myself from a sick secret. I don’t want to see any other kid go through what I went through.”
Two women who recently spoke to The Patriot-News about what they said was decades-old abuse by a former Harrisburg pastor were devastated to hear that no charges could be filed.
There’s no statute of limitations on their pain, one of them said.
“You’re either voting for predators or voting to protect the kids,” Chesley said. “It’s as simple as that.”
As part of the crusade to strengthen the laws, McGeehan and fellow Philadelphia Democratic Rep. Louise Williams Bishop proposed the bill on Sept. 27 that would make it a crime for someone with knowledge of child sex abuse not to report it.
Right now, the only people who are mandated to report are social workers, teachers and school officials, doctors, child care providers, and law enforcement.
“It changes the trajectory of their lives,” said Tammy Lerner, who was abused as a child and now works as an advocate for the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse. “And it directly affects your pocketbook. [Child sex abuse] costs over $400 billion a year. What else could we be doing with those funds?”
McGeehan also is trying to expand the rights of child sex abuse victims in civil court — proposing a bill that would lift the ban on suing any government employee in their official capacity.
Right now, for example, if a teacher sexually assaults a kid, the school is protected from being sued in almost every case, Harrisburg attorney Benjamin Andreozzi said.
“The burden that we have right now, and I’ve got several cases where I’m trying to sue schools, it’s called the snake pit theory,” he said. “You have to prove that somebody picked a kid up and put him in a snake pit. It’s so difficult for us to prove. It’s virtually impossible.”
If this bill passed, he could win a case for victims based solely on negligence, he said.
But Andreozzi said he isn’t holding his breath, based on the last five years of inaction by the Legislature.
“It’s an uphill battle,” he said.
Protecting victims
The following bills are awaiting consideration by state lawmakers:
— House Bill 878, introduced in March, would eliminate the statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases involving minors.
— House Bill 832, introduced in February, calls for a suspension of the statute of limitations for two years, allowing victims to file civil charges regardless of when the abuse happened.
— House Bill 1876, introduced Sept. 27, would mandate that anyone with knowledge of child sex abuse report it to police.
— House Bill 1895, introduced Monday, would expand a victim’s right to sue government agencies — like schools — in civil cases involving child sex abuse.
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