CALIFORNIA
Press-Enterprise
BY DAVID OLSON August 20, 2013
David Nickell said the repeated sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest in 1980 still haunts him today.
Nickell, 45, of Riverside, looks back at years of “self-medicating” and drifting from job to job and relationship to relationship and believes at least some of the instability in his life is the result of what he said was sexual abuse he suffered when he was 11 and 12 years old.
“I’ve lost a lot of years,” Nickell said.
Current law does not allow Nickell to pursue legal action against the Diocese of San Bernardino, because the alleged abuse happened so long ago. But a bill now being debated in the state legislature would give Nickell and some other alleged victims one year to file suit, exempting them from the statute of limitations for sexual abuse.
A 2002 law granted a similar one-year window but supporters of the new bill say many victims don’t realize the effects of their abuse until later in life.
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