Lobbying for, against change in Pa. sex crime laws pushing to 'educate the public'

By Ivey Dejesus
PennLive
May 25, 2016

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/05/sex_crime_law_statute_of_limit.html

Lobbying efforts in support of and opposiiton to legislation to reform sex crime laws continue to get more vocal and public. In this April 11 photo, Pennsylvania Victim Advocate Jennifer Storm speaks at the Crime Victim Awareness Rally in the Rotunda at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg. Photo by Mark Pynes

Lobbying to raise awareness for or against efforts to reform Pennsylvania's child sex crime laws is turning decidedly public: The side against reform is looking for extras for a commercial. The side calling for reform is looking for participants for a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Both sides are keeping their eyes on the Pennsylvania Senate, which is poised to next month take up legislation that would reform the state's statute of limitations.

On Friday, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, along with other supporting groups, will hold an informational event at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood on the "potential risks associated" with House Bill 1947, which garnered the overwhelming majority of the House last month.

The events features a pubic briefing on the issue, a prayer session and the production of a commercial intended, according to a press release out of the archdiocese's Office for the New Evangelization, to "educate the public on the severity of this issue and the need to act."

The press release calls out for anyone interested in being an extra in the commercial to participate. "We need your help to film a short group scene representing the Catholic Church alive in the Archdioceses of Philadelphia," it reads. 

Filming is being done in conjunction with Joyful Films, which has worked extensively with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to produce films to encourage young men to enter the priesthood, including, "Heed the Call," and "Called by Name."

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, along with the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and more than a dozen other organizations, is opposed to the reform legislation.

House Bill 1947, which was approved in the House by a 180-15 vote,  would eliminate criminal statute of limitations on future child sex abuse crimes. The bill would also amend civil statutes, including:

• Extending civil statutes from age 30 to 50
• Retroactively extend civil statutes that expired at a victim's age 30 to 50
• Retroactively raise the age by which victims of past child sexual abuse can bring civil action against their abusers. Under current law, a victim sexually abused while younger than  18 has 12 years — or until age 30 — to file a lawsuit. House Bill 1947 extends the age limit by 32 years, to age 50.
• The bill also would waive the sovereign immunity extended to government entities and its employees.

The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference argues that the legislation would endanger not only the church but every nonprofit organization.

"Nothing in the proposed Pennsylvania legislation would send any perpetrators to jail," Robert J. O'Hara, Jr., the organization's executive director, says in a written statement. "Rather, it will put individual parishes and neighborhood Catholic schools in the firing line for lawsuits that are nearly impossible to defend against."

On the other side of the issue, advocates for reform and abuse survivors have organized a walk in New York - across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall. WALK FOR A WINDOW, which will be held on Sunday, June 5, is being billed as "a tri-state unity walk in support of child sex abuse survivors' access to justice."

The walk will extend support for HB1947 as well as reform legislations pending in New Jersey and New York. The three states are poised to join the ranks of states across the nation that have amended sex crime laws.

In the event's Facebook page, organizers write:

"It is time for politicians to make our Children their number 1 Priority... Victims, Survivors, Advocates, Parents, Grandparents, Children and Activists Unite."

The event is slated for a 12 p.m. gathering at the Cadman Plaza Park (north lawn). T-shirts will be distributed, but organizers are encouraging participants to bring along posters and signs.

Calls for the reform of the law this year have grown more vocal and aggressive in the wake of a grand jury report that found widespread child sexual abuse of children and its coverup at the hands of priests and church leaders in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

On Wednesday, Patrick Cawley, the executive director of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said HB1947 was, among several reform bills, the one likely legislation that resolves the issue.

The committee is slated to hold a hearing on the bill's constitutionality on June 13. The committee will then have some time afterward in following weeks to consider the bill.

"The challenge is, because the House had the bill for quite a long time, we are nearing the last workable days of the session," Cawley said. "The  challenge is that with such a little time, leaving enough time for the experts to testify, to do analysis and prepare to study the issue and still leave time afterward for the Senate to act."

Cawley stressed that the members of the chamber by in large understood the factual record of the legislation. What remained to be scrutinized was the bill's constitutional integrity.

"Everybody understands what is at stake," he said.