Pedophiles in Kansas who have avoided criminal charges and survivor lawsuits could soon see the inside of a courtroom under a new state law that changes the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse.
Governor Laura Kelly signed on Monday Bill 2127 into law, capping a multi-year effort to reform the statute of limitations, which imposes a limited time frame for survivors to seek justice.
“It has been a long and uphill battle, but thanks to the brave survivors who volunteered to share their stories, this important piece of legislation will finally become law in the state of Kansas,” said Senator Cindy Holscher, D-Kansas. . Overland Park.
Holscher had been the driving force behind the proposal, working for four years to convince his colleagues to address the issue while amplifying the voices of survivors.
Lesa Patterson-Kinsey was one of those survivors. She said that she is excited after a long journey that the bill is now law and is proud to have worked for years with survivors, legislators and organizations.
“It will definitely help protect children in the future and keep sexual predators off the streets and prevent them from coming back, because we know predators keep coming back,” Patterson-Kinsey said.
Last month, as the Senate debated the bill, Holscher publicly shared her own story of attempted sexual assault for the first time.
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She was 5 years old and was playing with kittens in a barn on the family farm, when a laborer suggested that they play a game that consisted of showing their private parts. The sound of a screen door closing caused the man to flee, saving Holscher from joining the 1 in 10 boys who are sexually abused before their 18th birthday.
“If it has taken me this long, over 47 years, to speak out about the abuse that almost happened, can you understand why it takes years, often decades, for victims of sexual assault to come forward?” Holscher asked.
For survivors who do not go to the police until later in life, state law has prohibited criminal charges and civil lawsuits.
Once the law goes into effect on July 1, prosecutors can bring criminal charges for child sexual abuse crimes at any time. Previously, some of these offenses had a five-year limit.
“Starting this day, survivors will be able to file criminal charges against their abusers, no matter how long it takes them to disclose their abuse,” Patterson-Kinsey said.
Child sexual abuse survivors can wait until they turn 31 to file lawsuits. Previously, they only had until their 21st birthday. They also get a three-year lookback window if the perpetrator is convicted of a crime.
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“This is groundbreaking legislation that will keep our children and communities safer by allowing our state to get more predators off our streets, while building a foundation to allow more survivors of child sexual violence to seek justice,” Holscher said.
The new law was a negotiated compromise between advocates and Republican legislative leaders.
The legislation passed unanimously in the House and Senate after months of grassroots lobbying by survivors, who set up an advocacy table near the entrance to the House that lawmakers passed every day. Kelly thanked the survivors for their bravery and said the legislation would not have been possible without their work.
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“This was a team effort of brave survivors who showed up on Capitol Hill every day to meet with lawmakers and worked tirelessly to make sure they were heard,” said Sen. Usha Reddi, D-Manhattan, who shared her story about being sexually abused by her father.
While celebrating the passage of the bill, the survivors and their supporters pledged to continue efforts to expand the window for civil litigation.
“We plan to go back and continue working because there is still work to be done to continue helping survivors,” Patterson-Kinsey said.
This article originally appeared on the Topeka Capital-Journal: New Kansas law reforms the statute of limitations for the crime of child sexual abuse