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	Abuse Victims Lose 'Look-Back' Committee Refuses to Extend Statute of Limitations By Jon Craig Cincinnati Enquirer [Columbus OH] March 29, 2006 http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060329/NEWS01/603290327/-1/CINCI Columbus - State legislators dropped a proposal Tuesday that would have allowed victims of sexual abuse to sue their abusers up to 35 years after the offense. The provision, strongly opposed by the Catholic Church, was the most controversial part of a proposed child protection law. Church officials said the provision was unfair and probably unconstitutional, while victims' advocates viewed it as the best way to hold priests and the church accountable for decades-old abuse claims. The proposed 35-year "look-back period" had survived nearly a year of political debate and lobbying, but it didn't survive Tuesday's vote of the House Judiciary Committee. Committee members voted 7-3 to remove the provision before sending the child protection bill to the full House for a vote, possibly as early as today. "It's terrible public policy and I'm fairly certain it's unconstitutional," said Rep. Louis Blessing, R-Cincinnati. "It's a bad idea." Nearly 100 angry victims' advocates attended the vote and blasted House members, particularly House Speaker Jon Husted, for eliminating the look-back period, which they viewed as the most critical provision in the bill. "They gutted everything. Essentially, the church got everything it wanted," said Christy Miller, co-leader of Cincinnati's chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "The House leadership made a deal with the devil." But Husted and Blessing said the bill would strengthen existing laws and would do more to protect children. They said the bill they approved allows victims to go to court to put their abusers on a registry of sex offenders, ensuring that everyone knows what they did. "The terrible and heinous acts of child sex predators are indefensible, and this bill will help prevent it from happening to Ohio's children in the future," Husted said in a prepared statement. Church officials agreed the registry was a better option than the look-back period. They said it made little sense to reopen decades-old cases that would have been almost impossible to prove after so much time. "We had questioned the constitutionality of the provision from the beginning," said Tim Luckhaupt, executive director of the Ohio Catholic Conference, which lobbied against the look-back period. "We don't feel it is the best way to protect children now and into the future." Blessing saw another threat: setting a precedent of allowing lawsuits that are now barred by the statute of limitations. Under the statute of limitations, victims of abuse have two years after their 18th birthday to sue their abusers. The proposed look-back period would have given victims one year to file claims that date back as far as 35 years. Blessing said the new law would have prompted victims with other claims - from car crash injuries to malpractice - to ask for similar extensions. "This has never been done before, and it has implications that go way beyond this," Blessing said. The committee also rejected a proposal to expand the statute of limitations to 20 years for sexual abuse crimes, reducing it instead to 12 years. The Senate last year unanimously approved a version of the bill that included the look-back period and the 20-year statute of limitations. How they voted Seven Republicans voted for Substitute Senate Bill 17: House Judiciary Committee Chairman John R. Willamowski of Lima; Louis W. Blessing Jr. of Cincinnati; Danny R. Bubp of West Union; Bill Coley of West Chester; Matthew J. Dolan of Novelty; Randy Law of Warren; Tim Schaffer of Lancaster. Three House Democrats voted against it: Timothy DeGeeter of Parma; Sandra Harwood of Niles; Claudette Woodard of Cleveland Heights What changed? Key changes to Senate Bill 17: Victims will not be given a one- to two-year window of opportunity to file civil lawsuits for sex abuse by clergy that occurred up to 35 years ago. The statute of limitations for reporting abuse is reduced from 20 years approved by the Senate to 12 years in the House version. Current law gives adults two years to report childhood assault and battery. Starting Jan. 1, anyone found liable of abuse in a civil action will have to register their work and home addresses, similar to the attorney general's list of registered sex offenders. Failure to report an address would be a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to a year in jail. Sex offenders will be banned from working or residing within 1,000 feet of their victims. It would be a first-degree misdemeanor for clerics to fail to report known child abuse or neglect. E-mail jcraig@enquirer.com and dhorn@enquirer.com
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