Ohio Urged To Not Allow Statue of Limitations for Child Molestors

Former NFL offensive lineman Roy Simmons questions why there would be a statue of limitations on child molestors. He rightly acknowledges that there is no statue of limitations on the pain and suffering a child who has been molested goes through his or her entire life, afterwards.

Simmons says he still struggles today with what happened to him when he was 11 years old. A postman neighbor sexually abused him 38 years ago, and he has had to endure those memories all these years. He said he realized now that the rape led to his dysfunctional areas and actions in his life.

The Ohio House Judiciary Committee is expected today to add a civil registry to the bill, an idea suggested by the Catholic Conference of Ohio.

The registry would be a public list of those people identified as sex offenders, regardless of whether they have been convicted in a criminal proceeding, following a civil judicial process.

The future is unclear, however, for the controversial one-time, one-year window for lawsuits to be filed against abusers and those who covered for them by victims who would have turned 18 as long ago as 1970.

Supporters of the window have portrayed it as providing a way of using the lawsuit discovery process to force the Catholic Church to open its records, potentially revealing how much the church knew of abuse by its priests and perhaps identifying others who still have access to children.

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