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	Candidate to Push for Abuse Victims' Day in Court Dann, Seeking Attorney General Seat, Decries Limit on Suits By Tom Beyerlein tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com Dayton Daily News [Ohio] April 6, 2006 http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/ localnews/daily/0406priest.html DAYTON — State Sen. Marc Dann, a candidate for Ohio attorney general, said this week he will continue to push for a one-year window that would allow childhood victims of sexual abuse to sue over abuse that occurred as long as 35 years ago. That provision was stripped from state legislation last week after intense lobbying by Catholic bishops and insurance companies, angering adult victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests. At a news conference outside the Montgomery County courthouse, Dann, a Youngstown-area Democrat, knocked Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, for his role in "closing the courthouse door" to victims in the new legislation. The Ohio Senate had unanimously favored the lawsuit window, but it was scuttled after "a very heavy-handed" closed-door conference among lawmakers, Dann said. "I don't think the leaders of the House had any intention of giving power to victims," he said. "We're not going to quit. We're not going to let down the victims of childhood sexual abuse." The final law lengthens the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits from two years to 12 and requires clerics and other church officials to report child abuse and neglect if they know or have reasonable cause to believe it has occurred. There also is a provision to place abusive priests on a civil registry. Gov. Bob Taft has said he will sign it. Victim advocates said the "lookback window" was a key provision, though, and the final law prevents accusers with older cases to have their day in court.
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