Give Child Sex Abuse Victims More Time to Report, Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse Urges

By Matthew Kemeny
The Patriot-News
April 12, 2012

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/04/give_child_sex_abuse_victims_m.html

Former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry" Sandusky, center, leaves the office of Centre County District Justice Daniel A. Hoffman under escort by Pennsylvania State Police and Attorney General's Office officials in Bellefonte, Pa. on Thursday, Dec. 7, following a grand jury investigation related to numerous child sex charges.

It took decades for a Bethlehem man to come forward with his story.

The man, now in his 70s, reached out to Tammy Vonada Lerner, vice president of the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse, and told her he was "sick of living like this."

He said he couldn't even allow his grandchildren to sit on his lap because it reminded him of how his priest molested him many years ago, Lerner recalled.

The case, explained at a Patriot-News Editorial Board meeting Thursday, illustrates the difficulty victims often have in coming forward to report abuse and the need for reforms to the state's statute-of-limitations laws for civil litigation, Lerner said.

"It runs counter to the nature of the crime," she said. "It's insidious in that it takes decades for a person to understand how [the abuse] has impacted their lives."

The Bryn Mawr-based nonprofit supports a pair of House proposals and a Senate bill that target statute-of-limitations reform. House Bill 832 would eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual abuse of children in Pennsylvania. Current state statutes give victims until the age of 50 to press criminal charges and until 30 to file a civil suit against their abusers.

House Bill 878 would create a two-year "window" in which victims who otherwise aged out of the statute of limitations could still file civil suits.

Both measures, introduced about a year ago, are awaiting action by the House Judiciary Committee.

Earlier this year, Senate Bill 1392 was introduced. It would give victims of childhood sexual abuse now barred by the statute of limitations from filing a civil action against their alleged assailant another chance to file. The bill is in the Senate's Judiciary Committee.

Lerner and foundation President John Salveson, both of whom said they were sexually abused as children, questioned why there hasn't been a public hearing or vote on the proposals, particularly in light of the allegations against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and defrocked Philadelphia priest Edward Avery.

In the Sandusky case, Judge John Cleland on Thursday rejected an argument by Sandusky's lawyer that the statute of limitations might have run out for eight of the 10 alleged victims.

The Judiciary Committee chairman, state Rep. Ron Marsico, R-Lower Paxton Twp., said he's drafting a letter to Pennsylvania's Task Force on Child Protection, asking it to review both pieces of legislation. The task force, created in December to study sex abuse prevention, plans to submit recommendations for changes in state law to legislators by the end of the 2012 session.

Marsico said he does not plan to call either bill for a vote until the task force gives its recommendations.

The committee's Democratic chairman, Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone of Berks County, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Asked if he supports either bill, Marsico said: "I'd rather wait to see what the task force comes back with."

Lerner called that response a "stall tactic."

"If he were to call a public hearing, it would accomplish the same thing," she said. "With all these other issues the task force is taking up, why would you want to add statute of limitations on top of that? To us, it's just passing the buck yet again. It gets him off the hook."

When asked why the proposals weren't considered prior to the creation of the task force, Marsico said there are only so many bills they can look at during a session.

"We have over 400 bills in committee," he said. "There's only so many days the committee meets, and we try to address bills as they come up."

About 15 states have eliminated the statute of limitations for criminal cases of sex abuse against children. California and Delaware have enacted temporary windows for victims to bring civil actions.

In Delaware, though many came forward after the law was approved, it did not overwhelm the court system as critics said it might, Lerner said.

"It's more cost-effective to prevent than to treat," Lerner said. "Mandatory reporting is a great thing, but it's all after the fact. We need something that helps stem this and prevents future abuses from occurring, and that's what this law will do."