Capitol showdown over child sex-abuse bill

By Steve Esack
Morning Call
June 13, 2016

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-child-sex-abuse-bill-castor-senate-20160613-story.html

ARRISBURG — From the pulpits of Catholic churches to the platforms of social media, emotions are running high over a bill that would make it harder for some child sex abusers — and employers who protect them — to escape criminal and civil penalties.

During Sunday Masses in the Philadelphia Archdiocese and elsewhere Catholic priests, at the behest of their bishops, have denounced the bill and the state lawmakers who supported it.

The bill's supporters, including legislators who have felt the clerics' wrath, have accused the church of spreading falsehoods that the bill would financially cripple the church while leaving public institutions unscathed if they protect and harbor child molesters.

On Monday, the two sides will face off in the state Capitol. Child sex-abuse advocates are planning a rally before a 10 a.m. Senate hearing on the bill in which Attorney General Kathleen Kane and her solicitor general, Bruce Castor, are to speak and testify.

Kane has previously supported provisions of House Bill 1947, which would increase the amount of time victims can privately sue their alleged abusers and the employers who protected them. The bill also would treat future cases of child abuse like murder, so they can be prosecuted at any time.

It's unknown exactly what Castor will say. However, in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer last week, Castor said the legality of the bill's retroactive civil lawsuit provision is less clear-cut under the Pennsylvania Constitution than under the U.S. Constitution.

Castor declined to elaborate on his pending testimony.

"I think the committee that asked for the opinion should hear what it is," Castor told The Morning Call on Friday.

The rally's purpose is to blunt the church's criticism and remind lawmakers that people, not institutions, will be harmed if the bill does not become law, organizers said. One called for "armies of survivors holding childhood photos and advocates holding signs" so lawmakers "see our numbers."

The Catholic church is not against the criminal law change for future child abuse cases. It opposes the civil law changes, arguing they are illegal and could bankrupt the church because there are no financial caps for damages as there are for government-run institutions.

"House Bill 1947 is a complicated bill," said Amy Hill, spokeswoman for the Catholic Conference, the lobbying group for all dioceses in Pennsylvania. "We have long been concerned about how it will conflict with the Pennsylvania Constitution."

The House overwhelmingly adopted the bill in April, about a month after a state attorney general's report accused two Catholic bishops of allowing at least 50 priests and other religious leaders to sexually abuse hundreds of children for five decades in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Based on the grand jury report, the attorney general's office on March 15 charged three Franciscan friars with child endangerment and criminal conspiracy.

The Altoona-Johnstown grand jury recommended lifting all statutes of limitations, and the same recommendations were made in grand jury reports detailing former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's crimes and sex abuse cover-ups in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

The grand jury report, as well as Rep. Mark Rozzi's personal story that a priest raped him when he was 13, pushed the bill through the House in a 180-15 vote April 12.

The bill would erase the 30-year statute of limitations on when criminal sex-abuse charges can be filed, meaning sex charges could be brought any time after alleged abuse occurred.

The bill also would add 20 years to the 12-year civil statute of limitations that dictates when an adult who was the victim of child sex abuse can file lawsuits against abusers and institutions. The change means adults up to age 50 can file civil lawsuits for old instances of sex abuse — no matter how far in the past they occurred.

Finally, the bill would partially lift the sovereign immunity clause that prevents child sex-abuse victims from suing state and local governments.

The bill says a victim could receive up to $200,000 and $500,000 from state or local governments, respectively, if he or she can prove in a civil lawsuit the abuse was caused by "gross negligence" of officials responding to a child sex-abuse claim. The dollar amounts are based on laws that waive sovereign immunity for accidents on highways, sidewalks and in liquor stores.

In sermons and circulars, priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese and elsewhere have blasted the bill and the House lawmakers who voted for it.

After seeing himself criticized in his church's Sunday bulletin, Rep. Nick Miccarelli, R-Delaware, took to social media. He wrote on Facebook that the church was spinning falsehoods about him and the bill, and claiming that public institutions are immune from lawsuits. Miccarelli pointed out that Penn State University has been sued multiple times for Jerry Sandusky's crimes.

"Frankly, I would much rather be chastised from the altar than to be damned for not allowing justice to be done," Miccarelli wrote.

Castor is a former Montgomery County commissioner and district attorney. In November, he lost a bid to become the county's top prosecutor partly because of criticism over his 2005 decision not to prosecute Bill Cosby on charges he drugged and sexually abused a woman.