Senate Vote on Sexual Abuse Bill Postponed

By Michael Linhorst
The Record
August 21, 2012

http://www.northjersey.com/news/166854106_Senate_vote_on_sexual_abuse_bill_postponed.html

A Senate vote on a bill to eliminate the statute of limitations for childhood sexual assault victims to sue their abusers was postponed Monday when one of its sponsors decided there were not enough votes to support it.

With six senators missing during Monday's session, which was held in the middle of the Senate's summer break, Sen. Joseph Vitale said he was worried the bill would not have garnered the 21 needed to pass.

"When I polled the members — and I polled both sides of the aisle — I didn't quite get to 21," said Vitale. He plans to put it back on the Senate's agenda in September, he said.

Vitale blamed the Catholic Church for rallying opposition to the bill, which would eliminate the state's statute of limitations and would allow victims to sue organizations that are out of their reach under current law.

"It's all about the church," he said, adding that the organization has been "saying this will be the end of the world for them, they'll go bankrupt, they wouldn't be able to conduct their business. And that's simply not true."

Sen. Diane Allen, R-Burlington, a co-sponsor of the bill, said she was not sure the church was the only reason the bill failed to attract enough votes. Legislators were concerned about the liability of non-profit organizations "and lots of other things," she said, and now there will be time for Vitale to address those concerns. Representatives from the Paterson and Newark Catholic Dioceses, as well as the New Jersey Catholic Conference, which represents the state's bishops, did not return requests for comment. Church representatives have previously said that getting rid of the statute of limitations would force them to incur large legal expenses fighting allegations of abuse from long ago — so long that witnesses and evidence may have disappeared.

Currently, state law allows people to file a lawsuit within two years of "reasonable discovery" that they were victims of sexual abuse as children.

The bill eliminates that deadline, allowing people to file a lawsuit at any time. The bill also makes religious, charitable and educational organizations liable for any sexual abuse that occurs within their organizations.

Supporters of the bill said they were surprised that a measure seeking to make things easier for sexual assault victims could not get the necessary 21 votes out of the 33 senators who attended Monday's session.

Seven senators — four Democrats and three Republicans — were missing from Monday's voting session. Vitale, a Democrat from Middlesex County, said he thought the bill could have passed if the four Democrats had attended.

The debate comes as a lawsuit against the Delbarton School, a Catholic prep school for boys in Morristown, works its way through the courts, and as other clergy sexual abuse scandals make national headlines.