Bill Would Repeal Time Limit on Cases

In the District, murder is the only crime that never dies.

With no statute of limitations, murder charges can be brought even decades later.

Now, sex abuse victims, crime victim advocates and law enforcement officials are urging the D.C. Council to put child sex abuse in the same category.

A bill that would repeal the statute of limitations on criminal charges and civil claims stemming from child sex abuse has been introduced by several council members.

The proposal comes three years after the council extended the statute of limitations on child sex crimes and changed the law so that the clock does not start ticking until the victim is 21. The statue of limitations was increased from six years for first- and second-degree child sexual abuse to 15 years, and to 10 years for enticing and using a minor in a sexual performance.

In a hearing yesterday on the proposal to lift the limits entirely, the council's Judiciary Committee heard arguments from supporters, some of them adult victims of child sex abuse, and from opponents, among them the Archdiocese of Washington.

Under the proposed revision in the law, criminal charges of child sex abuse could be filed at any time, even decades later.

The bill would eliminate the three-year statute of limitations on civil actions stemming from sexual abuse. And it would set up a two-year window when claims could be filed retroactively for any abuse no matter how old, giving victims barred from suing under the current law a one-time chance to file a civil suit.

Supporters of the change said many victims do not realize they are victims until years later, often not until they are adults.

"Child sex abuse is a unique crime, said Mary Lou Leary, a former U.S. attorney in the District who is now the executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Statutes of limitations, she said, aid perpetrators of child sex abuse. The more that victims were humiliated and degraded, the longer it can take to come forward, she said.

Barbara Blaine was one of those victims. Abused by a priest for years beginning the summer before she entered eighth grade, Blaine is now the president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.