Recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee was the most compelling Sen. Phil Baruth ever heard, he said. And all the witnesses had the same question: Why didn’t the adults help us?
On Tuesday, Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, called on his fellow senators to start helping.
“What we are doing today is the least we could do,” he said.
Moments later, the Senate voted 29-0 to advance S.99, which removes the statute of limitations for civil claims of childhood physical abuse. The legislation heads to a third and final reading in the Senate on Wednesday. It still needs approval of the House.
Removing the statute of limitations would allow people to file civil lawsuits seeking damages for childhood abuse. The bill was prompted by investigations and claims of sexual and physical abuse at the now-closed Vermont Catholic Diocese’s St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington and at the New England Kurn Hattin Homes for Children, a private residential school in Westminster.
The orphanage operated from 1854 to 1974. Kurn Hattin is still in operation.
After an investigation, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office concluded in late 2020 that the orphanage had a history of abuse that extended back decades, but because of the criminal statute of limitation, no charges could be filed.
Separately, VTDigger reported last fall on decades of alleged sexual and physical abuse at Kurn Hattin.
Witnesses, several in their 70s and 80s, from St. Joseph’s Orphanage and Kurn Hattin testified in recent weeks before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the abuse they suffered.
“They were pieces of testimony that I will never forget,” Baruth told his fellow senators during a virtual session Tuesday morning before the vote. “I just want to commend every survivor who came forward.”
Sen. Kesha Ram, D-Chittenden, and Sen. Chris Pearson, P/D-Chittenden, recounted a video meeting earlier this year with survivors from St. Joseph’s Orphanage and the lasting effect their stories have had on them and other lawmakers.
“Every lawmaker on that call routinely had to turn the camera off and take a moment,” Pearson said, to process the emotional testimony they heard.
“They have my eternal gratitude for their courage,” Pearson said of people who shared their accounts of abuse. “I only hope we can turn their memory and their courageous acts into something that has enduring impact.”
The legislation would eliminate the current three-year statute of limitations on civil lawsuits over childhood physical abuse.
Two years ago, the Legislature did away with the statute of limitation for civil claims of childhood sexual abuse. Baruth said this year’s legislation gives survivors of physical abuse the right to pursue civil claims in the courts, knowing how difficult it can be to prove a case where the alleged actions happened years earlier.
Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, also spoke Tuesday in favor of the legislation.
“It’s about bearing witness. It’s about unearthing hidden histories, buried stories,” Balint said.
“It’s about giving people access to justice, a potential to actually have a wrong righted in some way,” Balint said. “But, it’s also work that we have to do individually and collectively as a nation, and as a state to wrestle with the past.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘It’s about giving people access to justice,’ senator says of bill aimed at past abuse.
