The State Supreme Court rules in a case involving the statute of limitations in a sexual abuse case. The case centers around Michael Powel, who was a teenager when he began attending Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis in 1975. In 2000, at the age of 41, Powell was diagnosed with a brain tumor and claimed he remembered being sexually abused by two priests at the school. And, he alleges this led to behavioral problems later on. A lower court dismissed the case on the grounds that the statute of limitations had run out. The Supreme Court, on appeal, has rejected that finding and has returned the case to a lower court. David Clohessy of St. Louis, National Director of SNAP – the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – says this is a positive ruling for victims in that it turns these cases back to the courts where they can be decided by juries. Clohessy says this ruling helps to change a situation in which many victims – some with repressed momories of their abuse – have been frozen out of the justice system by an arbitrary and rigid time limit.
Related web sites:
SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
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