Pennsylvania Senate Passes Child Sex Abuse Bill that Lifts Some Time Limits for Lawsuits

Steve Esack Contact Reporter
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Pennsylvania State Senate chamber

Without debate and by voice vote Wednesday, the state Senate approved a bill to lift time limits and give some child sex abuse victims more time to sue their alleged abusers and any employers who protected them

The bill now moves to the House, where its fate is unknown. Many lawmakers oppose it because it gives victims 31 or older the option of retroactively suing their perpetrator.

Final Senate approval came two days after the bill was resurrected this legislative session by Senate President pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.

In doing so the Senate got a leg up on the House, which last year led the charge on tougher civil and criminal penalties for child sex abuse.

Representatives acted after a statewide grand jury report accused two Catholic bishops of allowing at least 50 priests and other religious leaders to sexually abuse hundreds of children for five decades in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Lawmakers also were moved last year by Democratic Rep. Mark Rozzi's emotional public testimony about his own abuse at the hands of an Allentown Diocese priest when he was 13.

Pennsylvania State Capitol

In March, the House approved a bill giving some adults an additional 20 years to sue for past abuse they may have endured as children. The House bill raised the age limit for old lawsuits from 30 to 50. The House bill also erased the statute of limitations on when future criminal sex-abuse charges can be filed, meaning sex charges could be brought any time after alleged abuse occurred.

When the bill moved to the Senate, senators kept the criminal provision for new cases, but removed the retroactive civil lawsuit clause, which was opposed by two powerful lobbying groups — the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania.

Insurance companies should not be allowed to lobby governments!

Like the lobbying groups and some legal experts, senators believed the state Supreme Court would deem the retroactive lawsuits unconstitutional, which could jeopardize the legality of the whole bill. Rather than allow lawsuits on old cases, the Senate removed time limits for a future victim or a victim who is not yet 30 to sue the abuser and anyone who may have known about it and failed to report it to authorities.

A majority of Republican and House lawmakers disagreed with the Senate's legal opinion, so the chamber's GOP leadership let the Senate version die without a vote.

While lawmakers debated, the attorney general's office launched another grand jury investigation in six of the state's eight Catholic dioceses, including Allentown. The ongoing investigation is examining church records and taking testimony to determine if officials in those dioceses participated in the same coverup schemes as occurred in Altoona-Johnstown and Philadelphia Archdiocese.

The Senate bill is an exact copy of the failed bill, and Scarnati said he is ready to negotiate with the House on every provision — but the retroactivity clause.

"It's not that I don't stand with victims; I stand with the Constitution," Scarnati said. "I detest what these victims suffered or allegedly suffered. This bill will do much good for those moving forward."

Amy Hill, spokeswoman for the Catholic conference, said last year's civil statute of limitations debate drowned out the Catholic community's commitment to healing and recovery for victims.

"However the legislative debate proceeds, it will not diminish the Catholic Church's sincere commitment to the emotional well-being of individuals who have been impacted by the crime of childhood sexual abuse, no matter how long ago the crime was committed," Hill said. "We encourage anyone who is a survivor of abuse by someone in the Catholic Church to first contact authorities and report it, then contact their local diocese to get assistance for support services."

Rozzi, who represents Berks County, said Monday he appreciated the Senate's swift and somewhat surprising move to vote on the bill. But, he said, the retroactivity clause remains the most important piece of the bill as evidenced by the Altoona-Johnstown report, the ongoing grand jury investigation and calls many legislators are getting from past victims around the state.

"I'm happy we are going to get a chance to work on this right away," Rozzi said. "I've always said we don't need another grand jury to do the right thing and this is good public policy. If someone decided to challenge it in court, so be it."

Another Pennsylvania Diocese Releases List of Pedophile Priests

Report puts spotlight on child sex abuse involving Harrisburg Diocese clergy

Ivey DeJesus

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg on Tuesday was in the news amid a report regarding child sex abuse within its ranks.

A report by The York Daily Record indicated that the diocese named 15 priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children and who had worked in the 15-county diocese.

Raymond Prybis

The YDR report specifically names the Rev. Raymond Prybis, who once served at St. Joseph's in Dallastown. Prybis was accused of abuse during his time at a Boston-area parish before he was transferred to York County. The report cites a personnel file released by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in January 2015. Prybis did not have a credible allegation of abuse against him while at St. Joseph's, the YDR reported.

Many of the clergy members' names cited in the YDR report have appeared in reports by PennLive and The Patriot-News, both of which have over the years published reports regarding allegations of sexual abuse against priests from the diocese - as well as the respective response from the diocese to those allegations.

Those reports include accounts involving:

Guy Marsico, a former priest assigned to St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Rohrerstown, Lancaster County. (No criminal charges were ever leveled against Marsico).

The 2004 report from the diocese confirming it had received credible reports of sexual abuse of 64 minors by 22 priests since 1950 and had spent $1.9 million in settlements, legal fees and counseling. None of the 22 priests were in active ministry at the time.

In April 2002 the diocese received a "credible allegation" of sexual misconduct with a minor against John Allen, senior pastor at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Church in Penbrook. The allegation stemmed from an incident more than 20 years earlier. Allen resigned from the priesthood within 12 hours. Prosecution was not possible because the statute of limitations had expired.

The 1996 coverage of the Rev. John R. Bostwick, a former priest in Harrisburg. The then 55 Bostwick was placed on administrative leave in Richmond, Va., after the bishop there was notified by Harrisburg diocesan officials that a 28-year-old man had accused the priest of molesting him 15 years prior. Bostwick had assisted at various intervals between the late 1970s and 1992 at three parishes: St. Catherine Laboure in Swatara Twp., St. Leo the Great in Lancaster and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lebanon. Bostwick also worked at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md., in the 1980s.

The story that broke in December 1994 involving the Rev. Augustine Giella, who spent nearly seven years as pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Swatara Twp., as well as serving at a parish in Hanover in southern York County. Giella was arrested at his retirement home in Manchester, N.J., and charged with molesting the 14-year-old daughter of a Dauphin County couple whom he had befriended through the church. He died awaiting trial. The Diocese of Harrisburg paid more than $900,000 to the girl's family to settle a civil suit by her parents.

He'll be tried in a Higher Court.

In 1994, the diocese paid out $950,000  to settle nine confirmed cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests. That same year, then-Bishop Nicholas Dattilo appointed a nine-member board of lay persons and clergy to review the diocese's investigative practices and policies regarding sexual misconduct by priests and to encourage victims to come forward with any allegations. The nine confirmed cases of sexual abuse of minors dated back to 1950.

In addition, amid the wake of the grand jury reports out of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, PennLive in 2011 published a comprehensive report on then-Bishop Joseph McFadden, who told PennLive that he had no knowledge of the abuse in Philadelphia. 

There are no liars in the Kingdom  of Heaven.

McFadden was in 2004 appointed auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese. Although McFadden was not named in any of the grand jury reports into widespread and systemic clergy sex abuse in the archdiocese, he spent 11 years as secretary to Cardinal John Krol, who along with Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, featured prominently in the reports' findings.


The late Bishop Joseph McFadden in 2011 told PennLive that he had not known about the widespread clergy sex abuse and cover-up in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. McFadden spent years serving in the archdiocese as a top administrative official.

McFadden said his duties in the cardinal's office had been strictly administrative.

The YDR noted that the March grand jury report into widespread clergy sex abuse in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown had spurred its own report on the Harrisburg Diocese. Among the priests mentioned in the YDR'S report are:

Gerald Bugge who served at St. Anthony of Padua in Lancaster from August 1986 to April 1988. The diocese responded it had no record of a credible allegation against the late Bugge.

William Geiger , who spent time at Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Ephrata from July 1987 to August 1993 and from August 1999 to June 2007; and was at St. Anthony of Padua between April 1994 and August 1999. The diocese has no record of a credible allegation against the late priest, the report stated.

Thomas F. Lawler, who was assigned to churches in the Harrisburg diocese for more than two decades from the 1960s to the 1980s.

James E. Noel, born in York, was the subject abuse allegations after his death, the Harrisburg diocese said. It said there were no allegations against him while he was alive.

James Shaughnessey, who was assigned to Assumption Blessed Virgin Mary in Lebanon and St. Joan of Arc in Hershey in the 1930s and '40s. He is named among accused priests by the Boston archdiocese on its website.

Frederick Vaughn, who served at St. Joseph's in York, St. Peter's in Elizabethtown; St. Mark the Evangelist in Franklin County; and St. James in Dauphin County The Harrisburg Diocese said it received allegations of abuse against Vaughn after his death but not while he was alive, according to
The YDR.

Child Sex Abuse Victims Rally, Hope House Agrees to Remove Statutory Limits

Bill to eliminate statute of limitations on child sex abuse

in Pennsylvania, must be passed

Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks County, and a victim of sex abuse as a child, speaks at the Crime Victim Awareness Rally in the Rotunda at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Apr. 11, 2016. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com

Michele Gonsman hasn't had the chance to take to court the man who sexually abused her when she was a child. The statute of limitations on the crime had expired by the time she was ready to come forth.

Gonsman hasn't given up hope of getting justice. On Monday — just two hours before the Pennsylvania House of Representative was scheduled to hold a hearing on a bill that would reform the law — she joined scores other victims of child sexual abuse and sex crimes to push for its passage.

Gonsman said the issue of reforming the law is not an issue of the Catholic Church— a grand jury report concluding that priests in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese abused hundreds of children is an impetus for the bill — but one that affects thousands of other victims across the county. Gonsman was abused by a neighbor.

"They have no idea how many people they are impacting," she said.

Hundreds of adults who were sexually abused as children by priests in Philadelphia and the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese will be watching the House this week as it takes up a bill that would reform the statute of limitations.

Indeed, on Monday the speakers who took the podium to share their heartfelt stories of being victimized, or of family members who were victims of crimes, pleaded for reform.

The House on Monday is scheduled to take up House Bill 1947, which calls for the elimination of civil and criminal statutes for such sex crimes going forward. An amendment attached to the bill would waive sovereign immunity to the state, meaning, for instance, school district employees would not be immune from lawsuits.

"They were never given their day in court."

 - Frances Samber

The bill was introduced last week in committee by House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Ron Marsico, (R-Dauphin). The bill is about the 12th bill to pass through committee or the House since 2006 calling for reform. Almost all the bills have been defeated.

Under current law, victims of child sexual abuse are barred from seeking civil action after they reach the age of 30. Victims can bring criminal charges against offenders until they reach 50 years of age — but only if the victim turned 18 years old after Aug. 27, 2002. The law allows victims older than that to report until their 30th birthday.

Marsico's bill would eliminate all statutes – civil and criminal – in cases of sexual abuse; it would also extend the the age limit for civil action to 50. HB 1947, however, contains no retroactive measures. That means none of the hundreds of victims out of Altoona-Johnstown or the Archdiocese of Philadelphia would have a chance at justice.

Victims and their advocates have ratcheted their efforts calling for reform  in the wake of the grand jury report on sexual abuse and efforts to cover it up in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.  Other investigations about 10 years ago found identical patterns of child sex abuse by clergy - and its concealment - across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Frances Samber said she had to attend the rally to be the voice for her brother Michael Unglo, who lost his battle with depression in 2010, years after being sexually abused by a priest All Saints Church in Etna in the Pittsburgh Diocese.

"People can't forget that there are hundreds of thousands of voices silenced because abuse led them to suicide, drugs and alcohol..and eventually they took their life," Samber said. "They were never given their day in court."

She said Monday would have been her brother's birthday.

Rep. Mark Rozzi, (D-Berks), introduced as the "face of statute of limitations reform," said he was calling on all his House colleagues to support an amendment that would attach a window component to Marsico's bill. Rozzi's amendment would suspend expired statutes to allow victims whose legal rights have expired to come forth and seek justice. 

Rozzi, a survivor of clergy sex abuse said he had stood at the same podium four years to the day: "It's ironic that today we have a chance to put an amendment to this bill to give justice to the victims."

Filling the Rotunda with a thundering voice, Rozzi vowed that perpetrators who have eluded the law will face justice.

"They will be held accountable," he said.

Angela Quarles, who shared the memories of her friend who was murdered by her husband said the pain never goes away.

"It doesn't go away," she said, her voice quivering. "It stays fresh and alive in our hearts."

Please pray for this bill to pass, and please phone your state representative if you are in Pennsylvania.