Is South Dakota About to Give Some Childhood Sex Abuse a Free Pass?
A bill in the South Dakota legislature that appears intended to give several dozen Native American childhood-sexual-abuse plaintiffs their day in court may do just the opposite. According to several legislators, Senate Bill 130 is supposed to fix problems caused by a 2010 law that retroactively blocked the Native lawsuits against the Catholic Church, which ran the boarding schools where the abuse allegedly took place.
However, others claim the new proposal makes matters worse by reinstating the statute of limitations in effect on the date the abuse occurred, according to the bills language. For the plaintiffs in question, that was the mid-20th century, when the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse shut the courthouse door three years after the abuse, or one year after the victim turned 18a birthday thats long past for them.
SB 130s final sentence slams the door and locks it, according to attorney Michael Shubeck, of the Law Offices of Gregory Yates, in Rapid City; he and Yates have Native clients whose cases were terminated under the 2010 law. Shubeck noted that in a kind of circular logic, this part of the bill says that if a legislative action (like the 2010 law) killed valid cases, SB 130 would revive them.
But, said Shubeck, the short mid-20th-century statute of limitations that SB 130 puts into play means the lawsuits can never be valid. End of story.
Charbonneau-Dahlen contends the bill should be rewritten to make the applicable statute of limitations the one in effect when a lawsuit was filed. For her and other Native plaintiffs, that would be the longer time span South Dakota legislated in 1996, since all their suits were filed after that date. A nursing PhD and scholar, Charbonneau-Dahlen called the 1960s understanding of the psychology of childhood sexual abuse, and the shorter time frame that accompanied it, antiquated.
A state official who was close to the situation but authorized to speak only on background, insisted that the draft version of SB 130 did not reinstate the restrictive 1960s statute of limitations, though he said the bill could have been better written. He added that it might be kinder to advise the plaintiffs to forget about their lawsuits.
Full Article: https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/02/17/south-dakota-about-give-some-childhood-sex-abuse-free-pass-153600
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This is how both the State and National governments work to cover up the atrocities that have been committed in the so called Indian Schools.
I've followed this case for some time Larry. From the passage of the orginal bill,influenced by an attorney for the Catholic Church. Yup, that right, talk about BS.
They will do anything to protect the scum that abused Native Children.
seriously? the mere existence of those schools was not - and for many is still not - known for years for many people.
This is absurd and the matter should be treated as it is treated in many other places
It's almost as if they are trying to say "if a white child wasn't involved then no crime was committed" I know that sounds horrible but it is starting to look that way.
I didn;t know there's a database of priests accused of sexual abuse
That's exactly what they are saying Larry. It's South Dakota, one of the most racist states in the union.
Here's hoping they have enough people to force the bill to be re-written.
Right... if only the Native Americans would forget about being shafted for the past century or two, the rest of us could continue to ignore it altogether.
They would just love that now wouldn't they?