When recently asked about legislation that would have extended the state’s disgracefully short statute of limitations to file criminal charges for sexual abuse, state Sen. Elaine Phillips actually appeared to understand the problem.
“Twenty-three is too young,” she said of the age by which victims can file criminal charges. “It takes years to be able to face what they went through. And New York state deserves to give them the time.”
But then, she said, she needed more time to decide what to do. She wanted more time to assemble experts to look at the problem.
For that reason, she said, she would not support including the Child Victims Act in the state budget.
Phillips’ call for additional time might have been defensible 10 years ago when legislation was first approved by the state Assembly that would extend the statute of limitations to age 50 in civil cases, and to age 28 in criminal cases and establish a one-year window in which anyone would be permitted to bring a lawsuit, even if the statute of limitations had expired.
But not in 2018.
Not after 10 years of debate in the state Legislature during which time the state Assembly has approved the legislation five times. Not after 10 more years in which victims have gone without justice and sexual predators have gone without punishment.
Not after 10 years of public discussion by experts and nonexperts across the county.
This delay comes with a high cost.
“Pedophilia is a crime like no other,” William F. B. O’Reilly, a Republican staffer turned columnist, recently wrote. “It can take decades to come to grips with its effects. Many victims never recover from its trauma, turning to alcohol, drugs and even suicide for solace. There is an untold cost on survivors and society.”
Public support for the Child Victims Act in New York state, set at 90 percent by the bill’s backers, crosses political and geographic lines and includes 77 percent of both Republicans and Catholics.
The bill also enjoys widespread and bipartisan support in Albany, where in 2017 it passed the state Assembly for the fifth time, this time by a vote of 139-7, and from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
In past years, state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Republican, has refused to let the bill come to the floor for a vote.
This year, Cuomo gave a boost to activists by including the legislation in the state budget. But the legislation was removed amid the usual scrum surrounding the budget’s approval.
This leaves New York among the states with the least victim-friendly reporting laws in the country.
Flanagan and Phillips are not without support.
Opponents that include the Catholic Church, Orthodox Jewish groups and the Boy Scouts of America express concerns with the one-year window. They say the window would cause a wave of claims that could drive churches, schools and hospitals into bankruptcy.
As we have pointed out, this is a strange argument in that the opponents are tacitly admitting a likelihood that many sex crimes against children have not been reported. And should not be reported.
There are also two problems with the argument.
The first is that the opponents’ fears about lawsuits are unfounded. The many states that have provided a one-year window have not seen a flood of legal actions.
In Minnesota, which created a three-year window for a population a little more than a quarter of New York’s, just under 1,000 civil claims have been filed. With a population almost twice New York’s, California saw just 1,150 cases filed in the one-year window it granted.
The second problem with the opponents’ argument about financial liability is that it is irrelevant.
This is a too-big-to-fail argument for sex crimes. We should not place the financial concerns of institutions that might harbor sexual predators over bringing justice to their victims.
If an institution harbored sexual predators, it should pay the price just the same as any other criminal.
Hope for Child Victims Act’s passage grew last week when two warring factions in the state Senate agreed to end seven years of infighting and unite.
The eight members of the renegade group known as the Independent Democratic Conference have given Republicans control of the state Senate even though Democrats have held a one-seat advantage.
With the holdout of Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat, the GOP now holds a one-seat advantage.
Felder has said he has no loyalty to either party, but is looking for the best deal for his district, which includes a large population of Orthodox Jews.
All things being equal, the Democrats would not need Felder if they captured another Senate seat to regain the majority. That would open the door for another vote on the Child Victims Act.
Voters might very well consider Phillips’ opposition to the Child Victims Act when she faces re-election this fall.
We don’t think Phillips will need to take more time to determine what that means for her.
