New York Has Strict Statute of Limitations for Child Sex Abuse

By Sophia Hollander
Wall Street Journal
June 4, 2014

http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-york-has-strict-statute-of-limitations-for-child-sex-abuse-1401852918

A charismatic teacher was accused of sexually abusing female students as young as 12 years old during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Decades later, the women found one another and confronted the man they called their abuser.

That could describe recent situations in both New York and Virginia. In each state, a group of women in their 50s accused a former teacher of molesting or raping them as children.

But differences in the states' statute-of-limitations laws has meant the outcomes diverge sharply. In Virginia, which has no limit on bringing felony charges, former teacher Christopher Kloman was sentenced to 43 years in prison last October, after pleading guilty to four counts of indecent liberties with a child younger than 14 and one count of abduction with intent to defile.

Mr. Rusch's accusers include, right to left, former Woodward students Sara Smahl, her sister Nancy, Lisa Young, Jane Bedell and Wendy Hooker Erin Patrice O'Brien for The Wall Street Journal In New York, former teacher Bob Rusch cannot be prosecuted in a criminal or civil trial because the state's statute of limitations expired decades ago. For civil cases, New York requires people who allege they were abused as minors to come forward by age 23.