State may suspend limits on claims over child sexual abuse

The state may again temporarily suspend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse victims to file lawsuits against their alleged perpetrators, regardless of when the abuse happened.

For childhood victims who are barred from filing a claim because too much time has passed, Senate Bill 2719 would create a four-year window through July 1, 2022, to allow civil claims for damages based on physical, psychological or other injuries.

The bill cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and next heads for a full Senate vote.

Under current state law, civil lawsuits have to be filed within eight years after the victim’s 18th birthday or up to three years after the victim is aware that psychological injury or illness was caused by the sexual abuse — whichever comes later. The law also allows victims to sue public and private entities that employed a perpetrator if the entity “owed a duty of care” to the victim.

The state previously suspended the statute of limitations for two two-year periods, from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2014 to 2016, prompted in part by revelations of widespread child molestation by Catholic priests.

An attorney representing victims who were abused decades ago by a Kamehameha Schools psychiatric consultant said that lawsuit was allowed because of the previous suspension on the statute of limitations. The school recently agreed to pay $80 million to 32 plaintiffs who were sexually abused by the late Dr. Robert Browne.

In addition to the four-year suspension proposed in SB 2719, the bill also would extend the current statute of limitations from eight years to 22 years after the victim’s 18th birthday — or until they are 40 years old — and from three years to 10 years after the victim becomes aware that injury or illness was caused by the sexual abuse.

The bill was supported by advocates who say child victims sometimes don’t realize or remember the abuse suffered — due to emotional or psychological trauma that can cause them to repress the incident — until undergoing therapy.

Justin Murakami, policy research associate for the Sex Abuse Treatment Center at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, said nationally 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before they turn 18. On Oahu, more than half of the survivors who seek services at the center were sexually abused at age 17 or younger, he said.

Murakami said studies show that between 60 percent and 80 percent of child sex abuse survivors withhold disclosure, most until adulthood. On average, survivors take 20 years to disclose childhood abuse, he said.

“When more survivors are able to come forward in a manner that respects the enormous bravery that an act of disclosure represents, perpetrators are identified and are barred from benefiting from the heinous, silencing nature of their crimes,” Murakami said in supporting testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A man who said he was sexually abused as a child but didn’t tell anyone until he was 27 years old testified in support of the bill, saying childhood sex abuse is “confusing, creates feelings of shame, guilt and anger, and destroys your ability to trust.”

“It can take many years after the abuse to even admit what happened, let alone seek the medical attention needed to accept and move on,” he said. “The recent lawsuits in Hollywood and #MeToo campaign in social media shows that sex assault affects more people than we could ever know.”

The measure was opposed by the state attorney general’s office. Deputy Attorney General Caron Inagaki said the previous two suspensions of the time limits have already given victims “a fair opportunity to have a second chance” at filing a lawsuit, and raised concerns about false claims.

“The extended length of time raises due process concerns because the bill could severely prejudice the defendants in a lawsuit who may not be just the accused perpetrator but also any entity that may be subject to the law,” Inagaki said. “With this further extension, a victim could theoretically bring a lawsuit more than four decades after the sexual assault. Over the passage of time, memories fade, witnesses move or pass away, and documents are lost or destroyed.”

Sen. Laura Thielen questioned that reasoning.

“The testimony from the AG’s office is very surprising to me because it’s very, very one-sided and doesn’t recognize the public policy concerns that need to be balanced in making this decision,” Thielen said. “The concern seems to be about how is someone going to defend themselves and not the concern about the individuals who were subject to that abuse.”