New Jersey’s Victim-friendly Statute of Limitations Law Helps Child Sex Abuse Victim Sue the Teacher That Scarred His Life, Decades Later

By Larry Mcshane
New York Daily News
May 19, 2016

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/n-s-statute-limitations-law-helps-sex-abuse-victims-article-1.2642056

A man who attended Hightstown High School in the 1980s has sued his teacher for sexual assault and rape. (GOOGLE)

If New York's child sex abuse victims lived across the Hudson River, facing their attackers in court would be a legal right instead of an unending battle.

A New Jersey man filed a lawsuit this month alleging his Spanish teacher at Hightstown High School initiated a sexual relationship when he was 16, during the 1985-86 school year.

“He thought he was in a loving relationship with this woman,” said the alleged victim’s attorney, Robert Fuggi. “He didn’t realize all those years were not love, but sexual assault and rape.”

The man, identified in court papers only as J.D., is now 46. But unlike New York, where victims must file legal action by age 23, New Jersey suspends the statute of limitations if the victim fails to realize both what happened and its continued negative impact on the victim’s life.

Those targeted by adult predators often turn to drugs and alcohol, bury their memories or suffer from ailments like panic attacks, experts say.

“In New Jersey, things are changing for the benefit of the victims,” Fuggi said.

The attorney said it wasn’t until 2015 that J.D. grasped that he was a victim of a sexually abusive adult.

Teacher Donna Ratner was placed on paid administrative leave after J.D.’s civil suit was filed in New Jersey Superior Court.

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The lawsuit charges that Ratner, who was nine years older than J.D., lured him into an affair that lasted for nearly a decade and led to a pair of pregnancies that ended with abortions.

“Knowing (J.D.) was having family issues, i.e., parents going through a divorce, (the teacher) would use that information under the guise of emotional support,” the lawsuit charged.

Though Ratner was married, she and J.D. kept their sexual relationship a secret, the suit charged.

Local police declined to comment on a possible criminal probe, but New Jersey — again, unlike New York — has no statute of limitations on criminal prosecution of sexual predators.