State Must Give Young Victims More Time to Come Forward

Glens Falls Post-Star
March 4, 2012

http://poststar.com/news/opinion/editorial/editorial-state-must-give-young-victims-more-time-to-come/article_1c3ae03c-6580-11e1-9b31-0019bb2963f4.html

Sexual abuse strikes deeply at children’s sense of the world and themselves, and can warp their personalities for the rest of their lives.

Many people endure these horrible attacks, usually at the hands of adults they know and trust, and many people find the strength to go on with constructive and, often, happy lives.

But that doesn’t mean victims of child sexual abuse talk about what happened to them, and if they do, it’s usually in the way of confiding in a spouse or sibling or best friend. Few have the confidence and resilience to come out in public and name and shame their accusers.

Because of the stigma of sexual abuse and because of the great interest society has in stopping abusers, New York should afford child victims every opportunity to have their accusers charged.

Now, New York sets no statute of limitations on only the most heinous child sex abuse crimes — first-degree rape, aggravated sexual abuse and course of sexual conduct against a child. For crimes that fall outside the narrow circle of those most serious offenses, the statute of limitations is five years after the victim turns 18.

Imagine how hard, how unsettling and nerve-wracking it must be to report to the police that you were sexually abused as a child. Frequently, this involves accusing a trusted figure in the community, someone who works with children, someone whom many people like and respect. Sometimes, it involves accusing a relative and risking alienation from your own family. It’s hard to imagine a more difficult task.

Many 23-year-olds have not reached the level of maturity and stability necessary to undertake such an emotionally stressful step. Many 23-year-olds are still confused about their schooling and their careers, still trying to take the first tentative steps into adulthood.

Five years as an “adult” is insufficient time to allow victims to confront their abuse, and reach a point where they are capable of seeking justice.

The discussion is relevant now because two men — Bobby Davis and his stepbrother, Michael Lang — who say a Syracuse University basketball coach, Bernie Fine, molested them years ago, when they were ballboys, are pushing to have the statute of limitations amended in civil cases of child sex abuse.

Civil lawsuits are subject to similar limits as criminal charges — you can’t file them if more than five years has passed since the charges were reported to police or since the victim turned 18.

What the men want is the Legislature to pass a measure creating a one-year grace period for filing civil lawsuits over child sex abuse. During that year, victims could sue over acts that occurred any time in the past.

Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, a Queens Democrat, is pushing the bill, which would also extend civil and criminal statutes of limitations on child sex abuse from five years to 10.

We have seen locally how devastating child sex abuse can be, and how long it can take for the truth to come out. Gary Mercure, a former Catholic priest in Queensbury, was convicted last year of sexually abusing altar boys from Queensbury. But the only reason Mercure was convicted is that he was prosecuted in Massachusetts for trips he took there with the boys in the late ’80s. Massachusetts has a longer statute of limitations for this sort of crime.

Defense lawyers have raised objections to extending the limits, worrying that, as years pass, memories get fuzzy and evidence becomes scarce. But if the evidence is insufficient to convict, then their clients will be found not guilty, whether 10 days have passed or 10 years.

The prosecution of child sex abusers is as much about prevention as it is punishment. We all have an interest in meting out justice to abusers who, for their own pleasure, have hurt children. We have just as much an interest, if not more, in preventing them from doing it again.

Local editorials represent the opinion of The Post-Star editorial board, which consists of Publisher Rick Emanuel, Editor Ken Tingley and citizen representative Charlotte Potvin.