Statute of Limitations Bill - Update

A few weeks ago, I wrote a series of posts about a bill proposed in the Washington state legislature to extend the statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes until the child victim's 28th birthday. I started the posts as acknowledgment of former Spokane County prosecutor Don Brockett's hard work on this issue over the years, and to recognize his efforts as a "Spirit of Service" story. It culminated into me going to Olympia to testify on the bill. The bill passed through committee and was waiting for a Senate floor vote.

The good news: the bill has now been voted out of the Senate and sent over to the House. Now we need to work to get it through the law-making process over there. Don still has concerns that the bill covers only some of the sex abuse crimes against children. The details of his concerns are at his website, www.stopmolesters.org.

Here is a list of the members of the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee in the House (the committee now in charge of taking action). If you contact them to urge action on the bil, please consider also urging that they broaden the bill to include other sex abuse crimes (Don has a list of those crimes here):

Rep. Christopher Hurst: hurst.christopher@leg.wa.gov, Rep. Al O’Brien: obrien.al@leg.wa.gov, Rep. Kirk Pearson: pearson.kirk@leg.wa.gov, Rep. Brad Klippert: klippert.brad@leg.wa.gov, Rep. Sherry Appleton: appleton.sherry@leg.wa.gov, Rep. Roger Goodman: goodman.roger@leg.wa.gov, Rep. Steve Kirby: kirby.steve@leg.wa.gov, and Rep. Charles Ross ross.charles@leg.wa.gov.