A legislative panel has moved a bill to the Senate floor that would eliminate the statute of limitations for civil claims of childhood physical abuse.
“I’d actually like to vote the bill out today, if possible,” Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said of the measure, S.99.
And the committee did just that. The legislation does away with the three-year statute of limitation for civil lawsuits on claims of childhood physical abuse. The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.
The measure follows legislation that passed two years ago eliminating the statute of limitations for civil claims of childhood sexual abuse.
The statutory change is in response to investigations and claims of sexual and physical abuse at the now shuttered Vermont Catholic Diocese’s St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington and at the New England Kurn Hattin Homes for Children.
A two-year investigation ended late 2020 with the Vermont Attorney General’s Office concluding that there was in fact a history of child abuse at the orphanage. No charges were filed because of criminal statutes of limitations. An investigation last fall by VTDigger also revealed decades of alleged sexual and physical abuse at Kurn Hattin.
Last week, several former residents of St. Joseph’s Orphanage spoke of the abuse they suffered and urged the Legislature to eliminate the statute of limitations.
Members of the organization “Voices of St. Joseph’s” recounted — at times, through tears — abuses at the hands of priests, nuns and others who worked there.
They spoke of sex acts they were forced to perform and of beatings they endured as punishment for missteps, such as not finishing a meal. They talked of being locked in closets and hearing the screams of other children also held in confinement.
The former residents also testified about the emotional toll they have experienced. Several said the trauma they suffered as children made it difficult to maintain relationships as adults.
“We weren’t bad kids,” Debbie Hazen, another member of Voices of St. Joseph’s, told the committee Thursday. “We were just kids.”
On Wednesday, Sears said Hazen’s testimony helped prompt him to move the bill.
“I didn’t expect to do this this quickly,” Sears said. “The witnesses from both Kurn Hattin and St. Joseph’s Orphanage were so compelling.”
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