- New legislation changes the statute of limitations for sexual assault cases.
- Victims now have more time to come forward and file charges.
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During the final days of the lame duck session, advocates came to the capitol to push for bills giving survivors of sexual abuse justice.
"We brought all of those people there and they got their hopes one more time, the bills did not move," Sellek said.
John Sellek is the spokesperson for the sexual assault survivors group: Justice for Survivors.
They have been pushing for a bill package that would have:
- extended the statute of limitations to a survivor's 52nd birthday,
- open a one-year revival window for anyone whose criminal claims expired in civil courts
- and eliminate the civil statute of limitations in cases where there was a criminal conviction.
Currently, child sexual abuse survivors only have:
- until their 28th birthday to bring a civil suit,
- a statute of limitation of 10 years to file suit for a criminal claim,
- and no revival window.
"Because so far in their view the law protects the abuser and keeps the survivor from being able to access the courts, to access justice, to come forward," Sellek said.
However, lack of attendance in the state house during the final lawmaking days of 2024 prevented the bills from going further.
"We have a strong case to make for bipartisan passage. That's why we think when it's up on the board in the house and it's on the board. It's going to get a lot of votes and it's going to come from both sides because sexual assault doesn't care about what your political background was or anything like that," Sellek said.
Sellek says the group plans to advocate for those bills as soon as the 2025 legislative session begins next week.
"We start again and we're not going anywhere so we'll be back in January and we will continue fighting to get justice for these people," Sellek said.
The 2025 legislative session begins January 8.
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