PORTLAND (ME)
Portland Press Herald [Portland ME]
February 3, 2025
By Anna Torre
[See also the decision of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.]
Exceptions must be made for organizational cover-ups of abuse and for survivors facing threats of retaliation.
With respect to the Jan. 29 article “Maine supreme court rules 2021 child sex abuse law is unconstitutional,” I am glad to have received a factual, detailed and timely representation on the crucial issue of filing lawsuits against sex abusers in Maine. After reading, I find myself concerned with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court’s decision to reinstate the statute of limitations on child sex abuse.
Maine Supreme Judicial Court rulings are important to the people of Maine. The decisions made by our judicial leaders can affect the everyday lives of ourselves and our community members, depict the overall attitudes held by our governing bodies and allow us to make predictions of what may be to come.
In particular, statutes of limitations surrounding sex abuse are sensitive and troublesome topics that beg for detailed and accurate representation in our news media, free from sensationalization and personalization, such that the Maine public can be properly informed and determine how to proceed on these issues.
After seeing evidence of the court’s ruling, I am left wondering about the future of legal statutes of limitations in Maine.
The Supreme Court officially ruled with majority opinion that a 2021 law that removed statutes of limitations on child sex abuse, allowing people to file suits for decades-old cases, is unconstitutional, meaning such cases can no longer be filed after a certain number of years.
I wonder and worry if there will be future cases in which the court decides years later that the “vested rights” of defendants take precedence over the right to file suit and demand trial for victims of a sex abuse crime.
I would like to see statutes of limitations on all cases of sex abuse remain inactive, as there are many reasons victims may not file against their offenders for multiple years. This could include cases where a powerful body such as the church may have concealed cases of abuse for long periods of time, as was stated by the attorney representing child sex abuse victims covered in your publication. This attorney believes that this particular consideration is not covered in the statute of limitations, yet the court ruled in favor of bringing them back, and this concerns me.
I need readers to contact the State of Maine Judicial Branch and advocate for a clause when overturning the statute of limitations on sex abuse that excludes cases in which there have been organizational cover-ups or threats of retaliation against a victim if they are to file suit.
Furthermore, I encourage you to keep reading and staying informed on legal updates pertaining to violent crimes in Maine. If we do not do so, some victims will not have a chance to file against their abusers, the abuse may continue, and people can find active workarounds to get away with it.
I hope readers will take action by contacting the Maine Judicial Clerk’s Office at 207-822-4146 and visiting courts.maine.gov for more information on how to reach the Maine Supreme Court. Furthermore, please continue to remain informed on the decisions made by our state’s Judicial Branch so that we can make properly informed decisions on whether we want to have a say in what happens to us in our state.