PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle
By Jim Lewis
HARRISBURG — She did not speak. Could not, not so soon after her son’s death.
Judy Deaven stood at a rally at the state Capitol here in 2015 for changes in the law for victims of childhood sexual abuse, but could not address the crowd. Her son’s death simply was too fresh.
Joe Behe, a 46-year-old Reading Central Catholic alumnus, had died of a drug overdose on April 3, 2015, after spending his life tormented by the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of a Catholic priest in Berks County, Deaven said. He lived as a recluse, unable to hold a job, unable to sleep at night because of fear sparked by his memories of the abuse.
It took him 20 years before he told anyone about the abuse by the priest, who has since died, she recalled, long after the state’s statute of limitations had expired on his case.
But Deaven had a second chance Monday, during a rally on the Capitol steps organized by state Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Muhlenberg Township Democrat and abuse survivor. She was there to persuade the General Assembly to allow victims of sexual abuse as children to press criminal charges and file civil lawsuits even after they turn 30.
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