Deadlines for child sex abuse cases only abets predators | Editorial

NJ.com
May 2, 2016

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/05/deadlines_for_child_sex_abuse_cases_only_helps_pre.html

A picture of Keith Rennar as a child is photographed at his home in Bayonne on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011.

Keith Rennar is photographed at his home in Bayonne on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011.

A picture of Keith Rennar at his conformation is photographed at his home in Bayonne on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011.

A picture of Keith Rennar at his conformation is photographed at his home in Bayonne on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011.

Mark Crawford is hopeful the New Jersey legislature will erase the two-year statute of limitations for sex abuse victims to sue their abusers. Crawford, who was photographed in front of St. Andrew the Apostle Church on Fourth Street and Broadway, says he was abused by a Bayonne priest as a child.

For the third time in four years, our lawmakers will soon be required to pick a side: They can continue to give legal protection to child predators and their enablers against civil suits, or they can try to bring some comfort to sex abuse victims whose lives are forever shattered. 

Some New Jersey legislators actually call this a dilemma, but we call it a conscience-cleansing, soul-searching no-brainer – you go to your church, we'll go to ours – and it should be illuminating to learn how many make this choice with the care and compassion it demands.

Once again, Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) is proposing legislation that would expand the statute of limitations for civil suits pertaining to childhood sex crimes from two years to 30, which provides more time for victims to sue their abusers and the institutions that harbored them – not only the Catholic Church, but all religious organizations, along with state and local governments and schools.

Throughout the country, this kind of legislation has faced rigorous opposition from the Church, which buttonholes lawmakers and uses powerful lobbyists to protect its interests, even as it has incurred $4 billion in costs related to the clergy sex crime crisis in the U.S.

For adults victimized as children in New Jersey, there is a two-year deadline to file civil lawsuits after the sex abuse victim becomes aware that they have been damaged by the abuse.

It is an absurd and arbitrary limit: The small and inadequate window fails to account for the psychological trauma that may dominate these victims' lives, and assumes that they can easily turn that trauma into legal action within that time frame.

That legal option must remain available for a much longer period. Many other states have significantly lengthened the statutes of limitation for civil cases; six have eliminated it entirely.

It is not entirely about money. It is about justice, about winning a verdict in an impartial setting, about validating the abuse. The right to pursue that vindication must not be constrained. And it is the only way these institutions may once and for all be more vigilant in protecting children rather than the adults who prey on them.

But no victim should be put on a clock.

Vitale is confident that the bill will clear the Senate Legislative Committee sometime next month, and then it's a matter of Senate President Steve Sweeney posting it. Sweeney was prepared to give a very similar bill a floor vote in 2012 – a Vitale bill that had bipartisan support – but it was suddenly pulled when four Democrats failed to show up for the vote.

Many victims have come forward since then. A film that depicted the prevalence of the crisis has even won the Best Picture Oscar since then. These odious crimes have become so rampant they were committed by a man who was two heartbeats from the presidency on 9/11, yet the vast majority still go unreported. 

When a victim is ready to summon the courage to make his or her case, they should not encounter a locked courthouse door. The justice system must be allowed to work, and no matter how long it is delayed, justice should not be denied.