BishopAccountability.org
	Victims Sue over Meeting Held on Abuse Reporting Bill By Carrie Spencer Ghose The Associated Press, carried in Beacon Journal March 31, 2006 http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/14225962.htm COLUMBUS, Ohio - Victims of sexual abuse by priests sued Thursday to stop the state from enacting the abuse reporting bill that lawmakers sent to Gov. Bob Taft a day earlier, saying critical changes were crafted in what the victims called an illegal secret meeting. The House deleted a provision allowing lawsuits over 35-year-old abuse cases before passing the bill Wednesday, and the Senate reluctantly agreed to the change. Taft intends to sign the bill - unless the lawsuit ties it up, spokesman Mark Rickel said. Three members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said they were kept out of negotiations leading to the cut that hurts them directly. Their two lawsuits, filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, say Republican members of a House committee met illegally Monday with Speaker Jon Husted and another GOP member, Rep. Bill Seitz, while a guard kept the victims out of the room. "Every time the door opened we could see them in there, but we had no access," said Claudia Vercellotti, a victim from Toledo. State law on legislative meetings allows private sessions for a caucus, or a meeting of members of the same party. Attorney Catherine Hoolahan, representing the victims, said the law on committee meetings defines a caucus as "all of the members of either house of the general assembly who are members of the same political party." Not all House GOP members were there. A court ruling in the victims' favor could invalidate the state budget and several bills, since a committee caucus is a common tactic of Ohio lawmaking. In fact, Democrats were caucusing during the break the lawsuit refers to. The complaint does not name the Democrats. David Marburger, a Cleveland attorney who specializes in open records and meetings, said the law was poorly worded, but he couldn't tell for certain if the meeting still wouldn't qualify as a caucus. Not an issue, replied Scott Borgemenke, Husted's chief of staff who was with Husted in the room. He said the speaker was there about three minutes, asked the committee chair how the debate was going and was told, "fine." "There was no strategy meeting," he said. Negotiations about changes to the bill were handled in individual phone calls over the weekend, he said.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.