Head Of PA Association For Justice Calls On Corbett To Support Bill To Protect Child Abuse Victims
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The head of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice is calling on the governor to support a bill to protect child abuse victims. But time is running out because the legislature leaves for vacation at the end of the day on Friday.
Kenneth Rothweiler is calling on Governor Corbett and state lawmakers to do the right thing and lift the statute of limitations on child abuse victims. But more importantly, he wants a two-year window put back into a current bill now before the Judiciary Committee. The window would allow a two-year period where anyone of any age who was sexually abused as a child to come forward.
"There are a lot of people who are still hiding in the shadows because they were abused and there's been no reason for them to come forward, because nothing could happen criminally to the abuser, and nothing civilly," Rothweiler says. "With this legislation, if it were passed, that would no longer be true, because criminal prosecutions then could go on and so could a civil case be brought."
Rothweiler says two bills that included the window were scrapped. He says Governor Corbett needs to step up and show the nation that Pennsylvania will protect child abuse victims, no matter when the crimes occurred.
