For the past few years, Senator Paul Boyer has been trying to pass legislation that would lengthen the time that people can come forward to make complaints about past child sexual abuse.
Currently, Arizona’s laws favor the sexual predators, not the victims, according to Boyer.
Boyer introduced SB1255 to lengthen the time to complain about past child abuse and give victims, whose statute of limitations had run out, a window to complain about past abuse. Boyer’s bill was killed in the Senate Judiciary Committee by Chair Eddie Farnsworth (pictured above). In April, a similar (SB1101) bill was introduced as a striker by House Appropriations Chair Regina Cobb. After two hours of discussion and heartfelt testimony by victims, family and experts, Republicans voted unanimously not to take a vote on SB1101. This bill would have given child abuse victims until age 30 to report past abuse and would have provided a one-year window to bring up past complaints that had run out of time under the current law. (Arizona currently has the most stringent child sexual abuse reporting laws in the country. Victims have only two years after turning age 18 to complain.)
In the past week, both Boyer and Senator Heather Carter have said that they won’t support the Republican budget — unless Boyer’s child sexual abuse bill is put up for a vote.
Enter… HB2746, which was submitted as a late bill by Rep. T.J. Shope on Thursday, May 16, and heard in Rules. HB2746, which is backed by Speaker Rusty Bowers, gives child sexual assault victims until age 30 but doesn’t give them a window to bring up past abuse.
Boyer wasted no time in releasing the following statement to the press. (Stay tuned for more on HB2746 next week. Boyer and survivors of child sexual abuse will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. at the Capitol.)
of HB 2746