MI--Victims applaud abuse vote but want to see more

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, [email protected])

We are glad that a child sex reform bill is moving forward but Michigan lawmakers can and should do much more that extend the state’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statute of limitations.

http://www.themorningsun.com/government-and-politics/20161130/bill-to-nix-statute-of-limitations-from-child-sex-abuse-cases-okd-by-senate-panel

We’re relieved that Senator Steve Bieda’s measure won a unanimous vote in committee. But six states have gone further. They’ve opened one or two or three years “civil window” which immediately makes kids safer by exposing hundreds of child sex offenders and their “enablers” in civil courts. These essentially suspend the statute of limitations for anyone abused at any time as a child.)

Windows also do more to discourage employers from ignoring or enabling child sex crimes in the future.

Any longer statute of limitations for child sex crimes is progress. But this particular reform, if enacted, just nibbles at the edges of a crisis.  Immediate statute of limitations reform – especially a civil window - is much more effective and just. It will expose those who commit and conceal child sex crimes right away, not decades in the future.

We urge Michigan citizens, especially parents, to actively back this bill and vigorously push for even more effective legislative reform so that tens of thousands will be spared the crippling devastation child sex crimes cause.

No matter what lawmakers do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups – especially in schools, churches or other institutions - to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])

Bill to nix statute of limitations from child sex-abuse cases OK’d by Senate panel

By Jameson Cook, [email protected], 11/30/16, 

A bill that eliminates the 10-year statute of limitations for criminal cases involving child sex-abuse victims unanimously passed a Senate panel.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill 5-0 on Wednesday, and it was referred to the full Senate for a potential vote, according to state officials. The bill’s main Senate sponsor is state Sen. Steve Bieda, D-Warren. A companion bill, HB 5859, in the state House of Representatives, sponsored by Rep. Adam Zemke, D–Ann Arbor, has not made it out of the Criminal Justice Committee.

The bill would eliminate the  . . . 

Read full article here