Report Proposes Tough Reforms to Curb Abuses

By Dionne Searcey
Long Island (NY) Newsday
February 11, 2003

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lireco0211,0,1130352.story?coll=ny%2Dtop%2Dheadlines

The new laws a Suffolk County grand jury proposed to crack down on clergy sex abuse include everything from eliminating the statute of limitations in some cases to imposing a three-strikes-you're-out law for clergy who fail to report misdeeds.

The 21 proposals jurors are requesting from the State Legislature range from the sweeping in nature to tough, narrowly focused approaches to dealing with the volume of abuse cases that have come to light in recent months.

They include a call to criminalize church officials who try to cover up past crimes of their clergy. One seeks to outlaw sex between church members and clergy. Another would put in place a court-appointed monitor if anyone fails to report abuse more than three times.

Some of the suggestions mirror bills already in play in Albany this year. Some duplicate laws already on the books. Some, such as a call for screening anyone who works with children, would be too costly to put into place for lawmakers to ever take seriously, experts say.

Some of the measures might be headed for the same fate that has plagued other clergy sex abuse bills that have become mired in lawmakers' arguments over ideologies and semantics.

"They shouldn't be mired in anything because we're trying to send a deterrent message that they should not be committing these crimes,” said Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), whose bills to extend the statute of limitations for certain sex crimes stalled during the spring session.

Last year, support for a bill requiring priests to report suspected sex abuse fizzled after civil libertarians complained it would compel social workers and others to report consensual sex between 16-year-old minors and adults. Lawmakers have amended the bill this year to make sure that doesn't happen, but a similar proposal from the grand jury contains no such fix.

But Robert Perry, a spokesman for the New York Civil Liberties Union, argued that the grand jury "correctly concludes that the problems of clergy abuse arise from lack of mandatory reporting.”

Nonetheless, Perry said that the report's "other provisions, although well-intentioned, raise fundamental questions of due process.”

For instance, he said, the jurors propose extending the statute of limitations in some child sex abuse cases to 15 years after the victim turns 18.

Extending the limits "creates all kinds of problems of witnesses not being available and memories being vague,” Perry said. "That's why statute of limitations exist -- to protect against problems of human nature.”

Some lawmakers seemed unimpressed by the grand jury's report. Assemb. John J. McEneny (D-Albany), sponsor of some clergy abuse bills, worried jurors might be trying to retroactively punish priests who had escaped punishment under current crimes. One legislative aide said grand jury reports aren't enough to ensure passage of such sensitive bills.

"Public pressure is when you have victims and victims' parents up here knocking on doors,” the aide said. "And that has not happened yet.”