Zirkin turned his back on child abuse victims

I was sad — but certainly not surprised — to learn of former state Sen. Bobby Zirkin’s about-face on his original 2019 stance regarding the passage of the Hidden Predator’s Act (”Catholic Church paid Maryland lobbyists more than $200K to help limit, prevent abuse lawsuits,” Dec. 8). He had the courage then to stand up to the Archdiocese of Baltimore and push legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations regarding child sex abuse. But for the past three years, he’s been paid by the church to lobby against it. 

 In 1976, I first heard the catch phrase, “follow the money,” in the movie, “All The President’s Men,” about the Watergate burglary during the Richard Nixon White House years. Here is another example of a former state politician more interested in collecting a fee than what he at one time passionately believed to be the right thing to do. Why is it that money continues to override the decent thinking of today’s leaders? Can’t Zirkin collect fees lobbying for causes he truly believes in? I hope the former senator comes to his senses and stops his lobbying for the Archdiocese of Baltimore trying to maintain the statute of limitations on child sex abuse. 

There is another movie title I would like Zirkin to recall. This one is entitled, “Do the Right Thing.” — Mac Kennedy, Baltimore

Zirkin turned his back on child abuse victims | READER COMMENTARY – Baltimore Sun

2019: When Maryland gave abuse victims more time to sue, it may have also protected institutions, including the Catholic Church @Willcsmithjr

...Judicial Proceedings Chairman Bobby Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) said he disagrees with Rowe’s analysis, as well as one written for the Maryland Catholic Conference by Kurt J. Fischer, a partner at the prominent Venable law firm.

“I’m moving that bill,” Zirkin said, promising a committee vote.

Zirkin, a lawyer, introduced the amendments in 2017 that included the repose statute. He said “it wasn’t anyone’s intent” to grant permanent immunity.

In interviews, several other lawmakers who negotiated the compromise recalled the two church lobbyists who shopped the repose provision, saying they did not want to repeatedly revisit extending the statute of limitations. The lawmakers said they now believe they unwittingly agreed to language that could permanently prevent anyone born before the early 1980s from suing the church...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/when-maryland-gave-abuse-victims-more-time-to-sue-it-may-have-also-protected-institutions-including-the-catholic-church/2019/03/31/769537ca-4f3a-11e9-911a-7d51996d6f38_story.html?fbclid=IwAR2rRb7M-x3LDIW3CpFn_V0yvPd9zV8ZYtfSoyDRptEkgZbfScJ5QPTiIE8

Bobby Zirkin Returns as Representative of Maryland Catholic Conference to Old Committee to Testify Against Delegate CT Wilson’s Child Sex Abuse Bill

Former Senate Judicial Proceedings chairman Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) returned to his former committee this week to testify against a high-profile bill that’s a follow-up to a measure he once championed.

The woman who replaced Zirkin in the Senate last year, Sen. Shelly L. Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), has joined Del. CT Wilson (D-Charles) in his fight to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse survivors to launch civil suits. The bill was up in the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where Hettleman serves, on Tuesday. 

But in lieu of a packed room full of survivors comforting each other and crying as they waited to testify, almost 200 pages of testimony were submitted to the panel, detailing heartbreaking stories of childhood shame, abuse, molestation and rape...

...Zirkin appeared before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee representing the Maryland Catholic Conference, arguing that the bill has “problems on its policy, not in its focus on trying to get justice for victims.”..

...For example, if an individual were to sue a local public school under this bill’s two-year lookback window for an incident alleged to have happened before 1971, they wouldn’t be eligible to receive any damages because sovereign immunity protected those institutions from lawsuits completely during that time. 

Should someone sue the same school for something that happened between 1971 and 2016, they would be eligible to receive up to $100,000 in damages. If they were to sue for alleged crimes that occurred between 2016 and the present, the current sovereign immunity cap rests at $400,000...

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/02/05/zirkin-returns-to-old-committee-to-testify-against-wilsons-child-sex-abuse-bill/

Zirkin Returns to Old Committee to Testify Against [Delegate CT] Wilson’s Child Sex Abuse Bill #SB134 -“Biggest mistake of my life,” Wilson told Maryland Matters this week, likening the experience to “negotiating with the devil.”

Former Senate Judicial Proceedings chairman Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) returned to his former committee this week to testify against a high-profile bill that’s a follow-up to a measure he once championed.

The woman who replaced Zirkin in the Senate last year, Sen. Shelly L. Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), has joined Del. CT Wilson (D-Charles) in his fight to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse survivors to launch civil suits. The bill was up in the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where Hettleman serves, on Tuesday...

...This legislation is something that Wilson has fought for for years — at times with Zirkin’s help.

In 2017, Wilson successfully sponsored legislation to extend the ability of childhood sexual abuse survivors to pursue civil lawsuits against their offenders from seven years after their 18th birthday to 20 years. 

Additionally, if a perpetrator was convicted in a criminal suit at any time, their victims were allotted a three-year lookback period to sue.

To achieve this, Wilson said that he, former Senate president Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.’s Office and former House Judiciary Committee chair Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Prince George’s) entered into negotiations with the Catholic church to amend the bill. 

“Biggest mistake of my life,” Wilson told Maryland Matters this week, likening the experience to “negotiating with the devil.”..

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/02/05/zirkin-returns-to-old-committee-to-testify-against-wilsons-child-sex-abuse-bill/?fbclid=IwAR2R66Jm34HptVbvw_Md0HAj_hcy3rt2gmnBQwZM3nUkV0x2sk0CsvX1z-w

Maryland & France

A French author wrote for years about his sexual relations with children and continued to win acclaim. Now one of them has spoken out.

PARIS — The French writer Gabriel Matzneff never hid the fact that he engaged in sex with girls and boys in their early teens or even younger. He wrote countless books detailing his insatiable pursuits and appeared on television boasting about them. “Under 16 Years Old,” was the title of an early book that left no ambiguity.

Still, he never spent a day in jail for his actions or suffered any repercussion. Instead, he won acclaim again and again. Much of France’s literary and journalism elite celebrated him and his work for decades. Now 83, Mr. Matzneff was awarded a major literary prize in 2013 and, just two months ago, one of France’s most prestigious publishing houses published his latest work.

But the publication, on Thursday, of an account by one of his victims, Vanessa Springora, has suddenly fueled an intense debate in France over its historically lax attitude toward sex with people who are underage. It has also shone a particularly harsh light on a period during which some of France’s leading literary figures and newspapers — names as big as Foucault, Sartre, Libération and Le Monde — aggressively promoted the practice as a form of human liberation, or at least defended it...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/world/europe/france-pedophilia-gabriel-matzneff.html

Andrea Chamblee: Zirkin’s conduct on gun bill showed he wasn’t a good legislator

I’m ashamed that my high school in Howard County, Glenelg High, was the place where Grace McComas was bullied until she saw no other way out than suicide. The law in her name, Grace’s law, was an important accomplishment, even it was too late for Grace.

State Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Montgomery County, splashed that accomplishment all over a Facebook page that he would later claim was not related to his public position as a state senator when he started deleting polite requests from constituents for him to explain his position on another life-saving bill that he “slow-walked” through the Senate until the clock ran out last year: the bill that would make it illegal for already disqualified people to obtain rifles and shotguns at gun shows and other transfers.

Although Gov. Larry Hogan was publicly shamed and paid a fine for the same kind of deletions just before this, the constituents who were deleted had no such option. This is because Zirkin is so petty and vengeful that we knew other important bills would be slow-walked by him again...

https://www.capitalgazette.com/opinion/columns/ac-ce-column-chamblee-20191208-lkwulrqgyffann2tnz4jqsexqa-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3WI5T7aX-vSW5xSGsyug5EpuDELe9wUGzChAaCoAiMngYzg8EaxTC8uT4

AND

Zirkin has a history of deletions:  

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2014/04/did-senator-bobby-zirkin-delete.html

Senator Bobby Zirkin stood in the way of the long gun bill

When Maryland legislators recognized five fallen members of Capital Gazette this session, they seemed to stand in unison. But the machinations in the Senate on Monday spoke volumes louder than these words.

The difference in Maryland leadership was stark that day...

...When I wrote to The Capital about how legislators seemed more interested in Opening Day in Camden Yards than in fulfilling the mandate of the voters, I received a Facebook message from Zirkin, calling me names. More importantly, he said some facts were incorrect, so I rushed to make his requested corrections...

...While I contemplated this draft article and agonized over whether it was fair to Zirkin, I received a second private Facebook message from him that ended my concerns. This message accused me of again being untrue when I had commented that his delays were preventable.

He insisted that he “could show me every text or email” to prove he did not delay the bill. I gave him my personal email, and asked him on his public page to share it. I have no response. He did delete my post, along with unrelated posts by others. He also blocked me from posting again, behavior that Marylanders paid fines for when Larry Hogan did it last year...

https://www.capitalgazette.com/opinion/columns/ac-ce-column-chamblee-20190410-story,amp.html?fbclid=IwAR0fQK1JPHRaF3dP2-Fngx9phk-Shb-KfYVXXQpoCiDQJk1ZqPp9zroXBkE

Breaking: Maryland lawmakers use unusual maneuver to revive bill on child abuse lawsuits

An effort to give survivors of child sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits that failed in the Maryland Senate has been resurrected by the House of Delegates.

Democratic Del. C.T. Wilson’s bill to remove a statute of limitations for lawsuits rising from child sexual abuse had sailed through the House, but died in a deadlocked Senate committee.

The defeat frustrated Wilson and abuse survivors.

So, the House Judiciary Committee, in an unusual move, took many elements of Wilson’s bill and tacked them Saturday onto an unrelated bill from Sen. Justin Ready — a Carroll County Republican who is one of the senators who voted against the abuse lawsuit bill in committee.

...

The House adopted the amendments and moved the revised measure forward to a final vote on Monday — the final day of the 90-day General Assembly session. Any changes to the bill would need to be approved by the Senate in order to send the measure to the governor.

...

Ready was among five senators who voted against Wilson’s bill in the Judicial Proceedings Committee, citing questions about its constitutionality.

...

Zirkin said he supports both bills and hopes a conference committee will work out a compromise where both measures can be enacted.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-abuse-bill-revived-20190406-story.html

Netflix "The Keepers" Survivor Teresa Lancaster to MD Delegates: "Should this bill pass, legislators would be putting their stamp of approval on a dangerous excuse for failing to report. They would be undermining current law, which has protected children for 26 years. This would be an inexcusable, backward step."

Testimony in Opposition to SB 568/HB 787, Crimes--Child Abuse and Neglect--Failure to Report

March 27, 2019

My name is Teresa Lancaster. I am an attorney and a survivor who was featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary, The Keepers, currently on Netflix. I am also an activist and advocate for victims of sexual abuse.

I strongly oppose this bill. The proposed "actual knowledge" standard is so high that had it been in place during the Maskell scandal, no one could have been subject to prosecution for failing to report, had they suspected or even known about the terrible crimes that had occurred at Archbishop Keough High School when Maskell was there. Moreover, in accordance with the "actual knowledge" language, they would have been required to have seen for themselves the multiple rapes and the horrendous sexual abuse that took place in his office and failed to notify authorities before any prosecution could even be considered. It is clear in the child abuse literature that sexual abuse is not perpetrated in public. Consequently, I respectfully cannot understand, after all the scandals that have come to light, how supporters of this bill could claim that it would encourage reporting child abuse.

SB 568/HB 787 has been amended to make it worse. All this change would do is to undermine reporting based on suspected child abuse, which is the current standard in civil law. Legislators should ask themselves why no other state has such a standard in its reporting law.

I must emphasize that the part of the bill I find most offensive is Subsection C, because it undercuts an Attorney General opinion, 78 Md. Op. Atty. Gen. 189 [Dec.3, 1993]. This opinion finally required that the Archdiocese report to the authorities in my case, as well as the notorious Merzbacher case. Section C is a slap in the face to all the survivors of both of these scandals. Should this bill pass, legislators would be putting their stamp of approval on a dangerous excuse for failing to report. They would be undermining current law, which has protected children for 26 years. This would be an inexcusable, backward step.

Committee members must therefore, for the reasons above, look to their consciences and reject SB568/HB787.

Thank you for considering my views.

Lancaster Testimony (1) by on Scribd

Mother of 14-year-old daughter on her murderer's early prison release: Where is the justice?

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/mother-of-14-year-old-daughter-on-her-murderers-early-prison-release-where-is-the-justice/65-4eadcd40-d76a-4173-aeb2-07d8ee5bb226


2009 story on murder:

http://www.gazette.net/stories/05282009/laurnew122824_32535.shtml

Jane Doe and Jane Roe Call for an End to Maryland Statute of Limitations on Abuse Claims

March 17, 2019:

https://www.wmar2news.com/homepage-showcase/jane-doe-and-jane-roe-call-for-end-to-statute-of-limitations-on-abuse-claims?fbclid=IwAR0vin3mQI-gVNEHYyY4_wnYuN-D1RRW7QrYieic_MCCeADcDwc4KhSjWWk

AP: Maryland moves toward curbing abusive teachers’ job movement

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — After high-profile sexual misconduct cases in schools, Maryland took a step Thursday toward joining a growing number of states enacting legislation to prevent teachers with records of misconduct from moving school-to-school.

The Maryland House of Delegates voted 140-0 to ban nondisclosure agreements involving sexual abuse for school employees who have direct contact with children. The measure, which now goes to the state’s Senate, also would require prospective school employers to conduct a thorough review of applicants’ employment history.

“Child sex abuse is a horrible thing to acknowledge. It’s so much easier to turn a blind eye to it. That’s been failing our children for generations, and so we’re not going to turn a blind eye to it,” bill sponsor Del. C.T. Wilson, a survivor of child sexual abuse who has spoken of his experience while advocating for laws to protect children, said in a recent interview. “I’m going to do my best to make it as public as I can. If we air out our dirty laundry, we can clean it tomorrow.”..

https://apnews.com/55dc6d7f916d4ad6ae989567aafeb1b1?fbclid=IwAR2APpiYLeW16NiiLcT6vaUC6qpPpJ2kecP1g22hODgKgPjdCv-mF_rgQFI

Former teacher sentenced to 90 days in decades-old Maryland sex abuse case

A former high school teacher, coach and athletic director in Montgomery County was sentenced to 90 days in jail this week after pleading guilty in a child sex abuse case dating back three decades.

Michael John Riley, 64, of Walkersville admitted in court Monday to engaging in sex acts with a student at Rockville High School in 1984 and 1985. She was 16 when the relationship started and he was 29, according to prosecutors. An investigation of the case began this year, in April...

...Riley had taught history and coached basketball at Rockville High School, prosecutors said in court Monday. Over his career, he also had worked at Richard Montgomery, Poolesville and Clarksburg high schools. More recently, he had served as athletic director at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/former-teacher-sentenced-to-90-days-in-decades-old-maryland-sex-abuse-case/2018/10/17/91cc3e86-d252-11e8-83d6-291fcead2ab1_story.html?utm_term=.3d5ed9966891

Bobby Zirkin Legislation Now Law - Reduces Learner's Permit from 9 months to 3 months

Learner’s Permits – Minimum Duration (SB 424): Reduces the period of time from nine months to three months that young adults under age 25 holding a learner’s permit must wait before taking a drivers skills examination or driver road examination...

http://marylandreporter.com/2018/09/30/new-maryand-laws-take-effect-monday-oct-1-2018/

A new day in the Maryland Senate

If someone were to hang a sign on the doors of the Maryland Senate, it might read “exciting opportunities available, inquire within.”

Going into the primary election, almost a dozen seats in the Senate already were open as some of the most experienced members, and in many cases trusted allies of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. declined to seek re-election.

And then came Tuesday.

“This was a tectonic shift,” Sen. Cheryl Kagan, D-Montgomery, said afterwards. “It’s the kind of thing that doesn’t happen overnight — except that it happened overnight.”

That seismic shift included the loss of most of Miller’s remaining leadership team. Still in place are only one of four major committee chairs — Sen. Robert A. “Bobby” Zirkin, D-Baltimore County and chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee — and two vice chairs.

The results also raise questions about Baltimore’s strength as it leaves Sen. William “Bill” Ferguson as both the dean and youngest member of the city Senate delegation.

The changes will force Miller to build relationships with new members of his caucus, including those who unseated key allies and friends. The longest-serving Senate president in the country and in the history of the state has already started meeting with members, but some observers say those meetings are “the normal blocking and tackling” done by the Senate leader following an election...

https://thedailyrecord.com/2018/07/01/a-new-day-in-the-maryland-senate/

Video: MD Legislation to Stop Moving Around Known Sexual Offenders in Public Schools FAILED. Watch Jennifer Alvaro's statement on How this Legislation Would Have Saved MCPS Children from Becoming Victims.

March 1, 2018 public hearing on House Bill 1571.  This bill did not pass.  



House Bill 1571 included the following:

Requires the establishment of policies that support the prevention of, and response to, sexual abuse through:
Comprehensive screening of prospective employees and volunteers to eliminate “passing the trash” among educational institutions and/or other youth serving organizations. Passing the trash occurs when a teacher accused of sexual abuse/misconduct resigns, retires or is terminated and is allowed to quietly move to another school/school district without his or her new employer being alerted to the allegations of misconduct.
Prohibiting the practice by banning confidentiality/separation agreements in instances of sexual misconduct/violence, requiring information sharing between employers, and mandating annual training of all school community stakeholders to recognize and report sexual misconduct.
Development and implementation of codes of conduct to identify inappropriate boundary-violating behaviors that if left unchecked could escalate to reportable sexual offenses; including,methods to interrupt behaviors by school/other personnel that don’t reach the level of abuse.
The assessment and modification of physical facilities and spaces to reduce opportunities for sexual abuse

   2018 Maryland House Testimony 1571 by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland on Scribd

MD Legislature Up to It's Usual 11th Hour Tricks: “At the last minute, the last half-hour, what people didn’t know is they changed that..."

WASHINGTON — After facing years of criticism, the passage of Noah’s Law in 2016 was supposed to show that Maryland lawmakers took drunken driving seriously and were willing to impose stronger sentences.

But now advocates are growing frustrated that the law may not be having the impact it was supposed to thanks to a loophole that allows some people to walk out of court with minimal sentences.

When Gov. Larry Hogan signed The Drunk Driving Reduction Act of 2016, or Noah’s Law, it was widely thought anyone caught driving under the influence would have to get an ignition interlock put on their car, even on the first offense, just like several other states have implemented.

The devices, which come with Noah’s picture on them in Maryland, require you to pass a breathalyzer before you start your car and subsequently again at random times as you drive.

But a key phrase in the way the law was written left open a big loophole.

“The law initially had in it that it was upon arrest that a person would get an interlock,” said Rich Leotta, the father of Montgomery County Police Officer Noah Leotta, whose death at the hands of a drunken driver inspired the law.

“At the last minute, the last half-hour, what people didn’t know is they changed that so it was upon conviction.”..

https://wtop.com/maryland/2018/05/loophole-noahs-law-md-judges-trampling-drunken-driving-act/

Erin's Law Passed in 2016, But Has Not Been Implemented

In 2016, the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 72, Erin's Law.  

Erin's Law required:

Maryland schools to implement an “age-appropriate” sexual assault and abuse awareness and prevention program for grades K-12.Capital News Service, 2/4/2016

As passed, House Bill 72 states:

(B) (1) THE STATE BOARD AND EACH NONPUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE STATE SHALL DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT A PROGRAM OF AGE–APPROPRIATE EDUCATION ON THE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSAULT. (2) THE PROGRAM REQUIRED UNDER PARAGRAPH (1) OF THIS SUBSECTION SHALL BE:
(I) TAUGHT BY A TEACHER WHO IS TRAINED TO PROVIDE INSTRUCTION ON THE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSAULT; AND
(II) INCORPORATED INTO THE HEALTH CURRICULUM OF EACH COUNTY BOARD AND EACH NONPUBLIC SCHOOL. (C) THE STATE BOARD SHALL ADOPT REGULATIONS TO CARRY OUT THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION.
SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect July 1, 2016. Approved by the Governor, May 19, 2016. 

Yet, as of today, April 18, 2018, the Maryland State Board of Education has not adopted any Regulations to carry out the provisions of the bill. 

On March 1, 2018, in a hearing before the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee, Delegate Luedtke mentioned that "it had already been too long since we passed Erin's Law for it to be implemented in the schools" and that he did not want a new bill on sex abuse education to give "a new dictate to MSDE [Maryland State Department of Education] that would then delay further the implementation [of Erin's Law]."  Video of this statement is below.

Does the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and the Maryland State Board of Education have the best interest of children as their goal? Does MSDE and the Maryland State Board of Education follow Maryland law?

A Maryland bill passed to help keep students safe from sexual abuse and assault has not been implemented two years after passage, and the failure to implement that law caused legislators concern this year about passing additional laws to keep children safe.

Letter: [This] compromise might better be described as merely a pretense that would allow legislators to get this issue off their plate without, in reality, protecting children #SB132/HB500 #MGA18

To the Editor:

Neither Shanta Trivedi (“Abuse reporting bills would criminalize teachers,” March 12) nor Joyce Lombardi (“Punish those who knowingly fail to report,” March 14) gets it right.  I agree with Ms. Lombardi in her response to Ms.Trivedi that the knowing failure to report should be punished. But Ms. Lombardi misrepresents the scope of the bill in one direction as much as Ms. Trivedi does in the other.   She fails to mention that the bill undermines an important 1993 Attorney General's opinion that requires mandatory reporters to report after the child victim turns eighteen. Pedophiles do not stop abusing children because a timeline on one victim is added in Maryland law. They go on to abuse other children.

Without this opinion the shocking disclosures of the notorious Maskell case would never have come to light, as chronicled in the Netflix series, The Keepers.  The Baltimore Archdiocese affirms on its website, in an answer to a question about the NetFlix documentary, that it reported the Maskell case in 1993 only because of that opinion.

One only needs to look again at the USA Gymnastics scandal to find out what is wrong with SB 132/HB 500. Its provisions are in line with the USA Gymnastics policy which caused this horrendous scandal in the first place.  One gymnast, who was twenty years old at the time, reported to organization officials that team physician Larry Nassar sexually abused her as a child. He is a middle-aged prolific pedophile who was still sexually abusing young girls. Its investigator never reported because she was twenty-years-old.  Moreover, its former director, followed the “actual knowledge” standard in the bill as well. If he personally did not see the abuse, even if he received complaints from other coaches or victims, he did not report it to authorities.

Ms. Lombardi talks about compromise. But the federal government and no other states have a compromise anything like this. The inclusion of the radical “actual knowledge” language (undefined in the bill) would chill reports and prompt those without a professional penalty to delay reporting until they witness the abuse. Having two reporting standards would muddy the obligation to report and encourage internal investigations prior to reporting to determine which standard applies.  Congressional bipartisan legislation just enacted, Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, criminally penalizes the failure to report abuse in U.S. Amateur Athletic Organizations on the grounds of “reason to suspect,” not “actual knowledge” of abuse or “witnessing the act of abuse.”

Most important, it is wrong to claim that prosecutors could ever use this language to prosecute anyone.  According to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, in her testimony on SB 132, “It is nearly impossible from a legal perspective to prove that an individual had ‘actual knowledge’ of abuse. . . “  That kind of compromise might better be described as merely a pretense that would allow legislators to get this issue off their plate without, in reality, protecting children.

Ellen Mugmon

Former Chair, Legislative Committee of the State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-rr-child-abuse-letter-20180315-story.html

Bill spurred by Nassar scandal concerns Catholic Church

Updated: February 27, 2018 7:41 pm

LANSING, Michigan — A Michigan bill inspired by the Larry Nassar scandal that would retroactively extend the amount of time child victims of sexual abuse have to sue their abusers is drawing concerns from the Catholic Church, which has paid out billions of dollars to settle U.S. clergy abuse cases.

Michigan Catholic Conference spokesman David Maluchnik confirmed Tuesday that extending the statute of limitations is “of concern” to the church’s lobbying arm, but he withheld further comment until the bill’s impact could be fully reviewed. He said the group supports other parts of a 10-bill package introduced Monday, including a measure that would add more people to the list of those who must report suspected abuse to child protective services...

https://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/27/news/nation/bill-spurred-by-nassar-case-concerns-catholic-church/