Capitol Beat

Sex abuse victims call on state Senate to pass statute of limitations reforms

State Rep. Mark Rozzi and victims from the Amish and Mennonite communities recounted their abuse experiences outside the state Capitol Monday.

State Reps. La’Tasha Mayes and Mark Rozzi speak on the Capitol steps

State Reps. La’Tasha Mayes and Mark Rozzi speak on the Capitol steps PA House Democrats

“We got lucky enough to find current victims. Think about that statement for a minute: We were lucky enough that he had current victims who are young enough to fall within the statute of limitations to open up a criminal investigation.” 

Those words, spoken by Rev. Jimmy Hinton, were just some of the heartbreaking comments offered by dozens of victims on the Capitol Steps in Harrisburg Monday morning. Hinton and others were there to call on the state Senate to pass bills approved by the House that would give victims of childhood sexual abuse – for whom the statute of limitations has expired – a two-year temporary window to file civil lawsuits against their abusers. 

Among the victims who shared their experiences Monday were state Reps. Mark Rozzi, La’Tasha Mayes and Maureen Madden, and members of the Amish and Mennonite communities, including cast members from the Peacock series “Sins of the Amish.”

Misty Griffin, author of “Tears of the Silenced,” the memoir that led to the “Sins of the Amish” series, spoke about her abuse within the Amish community and her fight to bring the issue to light. 

“At 22 years old, I fled the community after reporting the bishop of my church for sexual assault. For years I was haunted by the guilt – the guilt of getting out and leaving so many others behind and abusive situations,” Griffin said. “The institutions that cover up this abuse…they must be outed and held accountable.”

We got lucky enough to find current victims. Think about that statement for a minute: we were lucky enough that he had current victims who are young enough to fall within the statute of limitations to open up a criminal investigation.
– Rev. Jimmy Hinton

House lawmakers narrowly passed the two policies – House Bill 1 and House Bill 2back in February when then-House Speaker Rozzi was overseeing a divided chamber in a special session. Providing legal relief to victims of childhood sexual abuse has been a top priority of Rozzi, who was raped by a priest when he was 13 years old. 

House Bill 1, if approved, would create a constitutional amendment, giving voters the chance to approve or reject the statute of limitations reform during the November election. House Bill 2 would create a two-year window in statute to allow victims to seek justice. The current civil statute of limitations bars many victims from suing after age 30.

Rozzi, a Democrat from Berks County, was hopeful the House bills would be approved and sent to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk following House passage in February, but more than three months later, the two bills remain in Senate committees. 

“Here we are again fighting for our rights as victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse, who have been waiting many, many years for the opportunity for justice, to find out the truth, to hold our perpetrators accountable (and) to hold institutions accountable,” Rozzi said Monday to start the press conference. “It’s our right that we get into the court system to give us a chance to put our lives back together.”

The politicking between Harrisburg’s two chambers, the Democrat-majority House and the Republican-controlled Senate, is a continuation of the monthslong debate over constitutional amendment packages. 

The Senate approved a statute of limitations reform bill earlier this year in Senate Bill 1. But that constitutional amendment package, which included language that would require voters to show ID in order to vote and give lawmakers more power to halt gubernatorial regulations, received criticism from Democrats who wanted the two-year legal window for abuse survivors passed in a standalone bill. 

To amend the constitution, a proposed change must be approved by the House and Senate in consecutive legislative sessions before going to voters in a referendum. The survivors’ amendment was set to be on the ballot in 2021 but the Department of State failed to properly advertise the proposal and the referendum was not held. 

Senate Republican leadership has said the upper chamber fulfilled its promise by passing the proposed window and has urged the House to pass the constitutional amendments in Senate Bill 1. 

“The House chose not to act on Senate Bill 1 in time for the questions to appear on the May ballot. It was not until the end of May that the House passed Senate Bill 1, after removing two of the three constitutional amendments,” Kate Flessner, spokeswoman for the Senate Republican Caucus, said in a statement. “While the House decided to remove two of the three measures from Senate Bill 1 as it was passed by the Senate, our caucus remains open to conversations about how to accomplish all three of the important constitutional amendments initially included in SB 1.”

For Hinton, whose father, John Hinton, confessed to sexually abusing 23 children, including Jimmy’s youngest sister, it’s long past time for the two chambers to come together. “The victims who don’t receive justice,” he said, “suffer not knowing, (when) they wake up the next day, if they have to face their abuser – because their abuser’s still out there.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.