Adult victims who suffered sexual abuse as children have faced off in
an increasingly acrimonious fight with the Catholic Church over whether
to extend the time in which a victim can file a lawsuit against an
abuser.
At a press conference last Thursday in which victims told wrenching
stories about being abused, Camille Cooper, director of legislative
affairs for National Association to Protect Children (PROTECT), called
on the Catholic Church to back down from efforts to limit Virginia's
statute of limitations.
She said the church already helped to cut the
proposed extension to file a suit from 25 years to eight years.
"I've reached a whole new level of cynicism in being lobbied by the
Catholic Church," Cooper said, adding that the church also sought to
write into the bill an exemption for businesses and organizations that
might be sued.
She said she hoped that any church members who continued
to oppose the bill would "find God" before the bill goes to the Senate's
Courts of Justice civil affairs subcommittee.
Victims
say the longer time frame is warranted because many children repress
memories of the abuse and do not report or acknowledge the experience
until years, or decades, later.
Current law requires a victim of childhood sexual assault to file
suit within two years after the abuse occurred, after reaching
adulthood, or after the abuse came to light.
Bills sponsored by Del.
David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) and Sen. Frederick M. Quayle (R-Chesapeake)
would allow victims to sue their abusers up to 25 years later.
But Cooper said that after the Catholic Church spoke up at a House Courts of Justice subcommittee hearing, Albo's bill, HB1476, was amended to reduce the period to eight years.
Advocates hoped to push through Quayle's bill, SB1145,
on Thursday without changes.
The Civil subcommittee of the Senate
Courts of Justice agreed to send the measure to the full committee after
amending the period to 20 years.
Among the advocates pushing the bill was Becky Ianni, 53, director of
the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
She told of being
abused by Monsignor William T. Reinecke when she was a girl in Alexandria.
"All the parents loved and trusted him. I loved and trusted him,"
Ianni told reporters.
When the abuse started, she said, she buried the
experience deep in her mind until her memory, triggered by a photograph
of the priest, unearthed it 40 years later.
Reinecke, confronted by
another victim, committed suicide in 1992.
The church has been rocked in recent years by disclosures of widespread abuses and cover-ups by clergy.
A call to Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference, was not immediately returned Friday morning.
Cooper said she would not be satisfied until there is no statute of
limitations at all on bringing suit against an abuser.
Placing limits on
the time frame contributes to the repressive tactics used by abusers to
silence their victims, she said.
Cooper and the other advocates of childhood sexual assault victims
also urged the passage of a bill sponsored by Del. William R. Janis
(R-Goochland) that would help judges to set monetary values when
ordering restitution for the victims of child pornography cases.
Under
his bill, HB1995, a victim would receive at least $150,000.
A House subcommittee agreed to report the bill with an amendment that
instead would set restitution at $1,000 for each offense.
During the
debate, lawmakers and advocates said an offense could be defined by
prosecutors as each pornographic image taken and each time the image was
reproduced and transmitted to others.
Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) has offered a similar, more loosely defined bill that will also go to the full Senate panel.
Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) has offered a similar, more loosely defined bill that will also go to the full Senate panel.