Below is one of the public statements that Maryland State Senator Will Smith, Chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, did not allow to be delivered in person at the February 2, 2021, public hearing on Senate Bill 134.
Testimony in Support of SB0134
Civil Actions - Child Sexual Abuse - Definition and Statute of
Limitations
** Support**
To: Hon. Chairman William Smith Jr., Vice Chair Jeff Waldstreicher and
members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee
From: Abbie Fitzgerald Schaub, with Baltimore’s Archbishop Keough High
School “The Keepers” Netflix documentary storytellers
Date: January 6, 2021
In 2013 I began a private effort doing historical research into the
the unsolved 1969 Baltimore murder of my high school English teacher,
Sister Catherine Cesnik. This evolved into the tragic story of sexual abuse
of minor aged students at Archbishop Keough High School. The Emmy
nominated Netflix documentary “The Keepers” tells our story. I had no
understanding of the lifelong damage done by this intimate betrayal of
trust. I thought it was like getting spanked - was something bad that you
got over. I was very wrong about that. This betrayal of trust and intimate
physical invasion creates permanent collateral damage that affects people
their entire lives, and rolls over into harming relationships for generations
within a family. Sexual abuse of a minor causes not just physical and
mental difficulties but also takes a financial toll on those harmed. Under
current Maryland SOL law, the people harmed have to bear those costs.
Trying to make sense of our Keepers story, I looked further into the
institutional systems that are supposed to protect Maryland children. It
was clear that our Keepers’ Father A Joseph Maskell sexually abused at
least scores of children over his life, likely hundreds, both boys and girls.
He was sexually abusing young adolescent boys while in the seminary at
St. Mary’s in the early 1960s and continued to abuse both boys and girls
for over three decades in Baltimore. We have multiple anecdotal reports
that his abuse was reported to Keough school administrators and to the
Archdiocese of Baltimore [AOB], though the AOB says they have no
documents in their files to confirm this. Maryland allows criminal
prosecution of felony sex offenses as long as the defendant is alive - but Baltimore City Assistant State’s Attorney Sharon May declined to charge
Father Maskell in 1995, despite scores of criminal complaints and dozens
of people willing to testify. Maskell fled from the US to Ireland to avoid that
Baltimore civil motions hearing. The 1995 hearing ended with the civil case
dismissed because of SOL age limits, allowing him to be free to abuse
more youngsters in Ireland before returning to Baltimore.
There are other local hidden predators who are known but never criminally
charged. There are also multiple clergy abusers from other states sent to
Maryland to live, for example at a Jesuit retirement home in Baltimore and
an Oblate retirement home in Childs, Maryland. Hundreds, perhaps
thousands of abusers from around the US and around the world have lived at a facility in Montgomery County (St. Luke Institute) while being evaluated/treated with no notice to anyone. The abusers live protected, not on any registries, no notification of law enforcement or the community,
with no legal restrictions on their contact with Maryland children.
The problem is not just with religious organizations, though that is what I
am most familiar with from our story. Abuse of minors within religious
settings is the minority statistically; far more children are harmed by family
members, acquaintances, teachers, sport coaches, even strangers.
SB0134 is not targeted at churches - rather it is a global child safety bill,
aimed to protect Maryland children from hidden predators in all settings.
I most often hear objections to removing SOL age caps based on the idea
that those who were harmed should come forward promptly to report the
crime. This makes sense to those of us not harmed. Those who were
harmed do not want to speak of it; they are embarrassed, ashamed, blame
themselves and think others will blame them if they speak. Many were
threatened to be silent, as our Keough survivors were. They fear retribution
by the one who harmed them, and do not want their parents or families to
know. A 2014 German study showed that one third of those sexually
assaulted as children will never speak of it. One third do speak around the
time of injury - but are often told to keep it secret or are not believed. The
final third do speak later in their adult lives, with the average age of
disclosure at 52 years old. People are ready to speak as older adults,
some waiting until their parents have died - but the criminal judicial system
will not press charges, and Maryland abuse survivors are age barred from
using the civil judiciary system. The hidden predators remain in communities - passing screening to work with children. Maryland’s SOL
time restrictions protect sexual abusers, allowing them to do more harm.
The Maryland Constitution’s Declaration of Rights, Article 19, promises
that “That every man, for any injury done to him in his person or property,
ought to have remedy by the course of the Law of the Land, and ought to
have justice and right, freely without sale, fully without any denial, and
speedily without delay, according to the Law of the Land“. I believe
statute of limitation laws deny those sexually abused as children
from having that promised remedy for the injury. They are promised
remedy “fully without any denial” - yet now in Maryland, purely because
of their age, they are denied access to the civil court system.
SB0134, the Hidden Predator Act, addresses these issues:
1) Removes the term “statute of repose” that was inserted quietly into the
2017 law without required explanation or discussion. This is a
construction based term that capped the time limit for civil lawsuits for
construction defects at 20 years. They added 20 years to age of
majority 18 to arrive at current cap of age 38. Building a house is
entirely different than raping a child. This term has to be removed to
make other SOL age cap revisions.
2) Abolishes SOL time caps going forward for sexual abuse of minors;
that means those who are 38 or younger no longer will have age caps
to file civil suits. Those 39 and older are still time barred.
3) Opens a defined two year window of time during which those older
than 38 with allegations of sexual abuse in Maryland as a minor can file
civil lawsuits. This will allow them to obtain documents that may help
prove their case which they now are barred from seeing. Sixteen states
and DC have passed look back windows or revival laws.
4) A severability amendment was added to the bill in 2020. If a portion is
ruled illegal, the remainder of the bill can still become law.
I respectfully urge the Committee to issue a favorable report on SB0134
without any other amendments. Let lessons from our painful legacy allow
other Maryland children to be better protected from sexual predators.
-Abbie Fitzgerald Schaub, resident of Maryland District 13.
