GUAM
KUAM
Updated: Apr 05, 2017
By Krystal Paco
It was almost a year ago the first survivors of clergy sex abuse went public. They are former Agat altar boys Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, Roland Sondia, and Joseph “Sonny” Quinata who reportedly told his mother on his death bed he was sexually abused by beloved priest Archbishop Anthony Apuron.
Their stories sparked a change in local law that provided an avenue for other survivors to sue their predators. The same law is under fire by Apuron’s legal counsel who this week filed her motion for dismissal in the federal court.
Defense attorney Jacqueline Terlaje is calling local law that lifts the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse unconstitutional and inorganic. She’s referring to Bill 326 which passed unanimously in the 33rd Guam legislature and signed off by Governor Eddie Calvo last year.
Attorney Terlaje represents Archbishop Anthony Apuron who’s a named defendant in federal complaints by Quintanilla, Denton, Sondia, and Mary Jane Quinata Cruz on behalf of the deceased Quinata. According to attorney Terlaje’s motions to dismiss filed in the District Court of Guam this week, the Guam legislature “unconstitutionally impaired vested rights, opened the door to unverifiable and potentially undefendable claims, and creates a prejudicial environment for defendant Apuron’s defense.”
That argument is up to the courts to decide. Former senator Frank Blas, Jr., who authored Public Law 33-187, told KUAM News, “It’s quite amazing that we’re going to do this in an unincorporated territory where not all of the constitution applies to us and whether or not that organic act was actually legal. So, I think that question needs to be answered first. If it’s not constitutional, does the constitution apply?”
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