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	Senate Votes to Lift Time Limit for Filing Sexual Abuse Charge By Ralph Ranalli and Russell Nichols Boston Globe May 26, 2006 http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/26/ senate_votes_to_lift_time_limit_for_filing_sexual_abuse_charge/ The Senate unanimously passed an amendment yesterday to eliminate the statute of limitations in criminal cases involving sexual abuse of children, a measure advocates for abuse victims have sought for years. The measure, opposed by defense lawyers and civil libertarians, gained momentum following the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Hundreds of victims came forward in civil lawsuits, but only a handful of priests were prosecuted because many cases were too old. Senator Steven A. Tolman, the Brighton Democrat who sponsored the amendment, said the time had come for sexual predators to stop hiding behind "a technicality." "The sexual abuse of children is one of the most heinous crimes brought before our judicial system," Tolman said yesterday in a telephone interview. "Those obstacles must be eliminated to protect the welfare of our children." Senator Cynthia Stone Creem, a Newton Democrat, said the nature of child sexual abuse -- a crime in which victims are often too ashamed to come forward and are intimidated into silence by their abusers -- makes it different from other crimes. "Sexual predators should not be rewarded for being good at keeping their victims quiet," Creem said in a telephone interview. Also reached by phone, Ann Hagan Webb, New England co-coordinator for the group Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, called the legislation "a wonderful step forward. . . . Now the real challenge is to get it through the House." Because the measure passed as an amendment to next year's state budget, it heads to a conference committee, where Senate and House lawmakers debate which measures to include in the final budget. Privately, senators who supported the measure said they believe it also has strong support on the House side, in part because it omitted other, more controversial measures, such as eliminating the statute of limitations in civil cases on child sex abuse. One high-ranking representative said that the issue had not yet been discussed at length by the House leadership team. Salvatore F. DiMasi, speaker of the House, declined through a spokesman to comment on the Senate's vote. Governor Mitt Romney's spokesman could not be reached for comment, but both Romney and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey have said they support eliminating the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases. The Senate also backed allowing drug offenders sentenced to minimum mandatory terms to apply for parole after serving two-thirds of their sentence.
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