California state Senator Jim Beall, a Democrat from Sam Jose, has relaunched his bill to extend the time period in which sexual abuse victims are able to seek damages for crimes committed against them in his home state.
Beall is the same senator who pushed SB 131 all the way through both houses of California’s legislature, before Governor Jerry Brown vetoed it. Brown’s primary concern over the bill was similar to that of USA Swimming’s: that it unfairly targeted private groups, like USA Swimming, the Boy Scouts, and Catholic churches, while leaving public entities, like schools or park districts, without increased liability.
USA Swimming also opposed that abusers wouldn’t be held accountable under the bill.
Beall’s new bill will test that rhetoric, as his newest bill will apply the same extension on statutes of limitations for civil suits to both public and private entities.
The new legislation has two parts:
SB 926 would raise the age at which an adult survivor of childhood sex abuse can seek prosecution from 28 to 40, according to a statement by Beall’s office. That bill is jointly authored by Beall and Richard Lara, another Democrat from Long Beach, and co-authored by two other state Senators and two state Assembly members, including Republic Senator Andy Vidak. This bill pertains to criminal prosecution, as compared to SB 131 that dealt only with civil complaints.
SB 924 more closely resembles the civil lawsuits protected in the original SB 131. It would increase the age deadline to file from 26 years old to 40 years old for a victim to “make his or her causal connection to their trauma” with later psychological problems. SB 924 would also allow adult victims five years, instead of the current three, from the time when they first make that connection to begin civil proceedings. The date of making a connection in this instance begins when a physician, psychologist, or clinical psychologist first informs the victim of that link.
SB 924 was jointly authored by Beall and Lara.
The full text of SB 926 can be read here.
The full text of SB 924 can be read here.
“California must not allow sex abusers to turn the law on its head so they can continue to molest children,” Beall said. “Changing both the criminal and civil statutes of limitations will give victims more time to report crimes and allow the justice system to get child molesters off the streets.”
When SB 131 was released, USA Swimming implied that there were multiple reasons that they opposed the bill “in its current form.” The two specific examples given were that “this bill does not hold the abusers accountable” and that the bill “excludes governmental agencies even when they are the employer.”
The latest round of legislation address both of those concerns by increasing the criminal liabilities to abusers by a parallel amount as civil liabilities, and by holding governmental agencies accountable as well as private entities.
Update: See USA Swimming’s response here.