What is the statue of limitations in reporting a child molester in California?

Question

A couple of months a ago, my twin sister and I were watching a talk show about pedafiles. I looked at her and we started talking about when we were children. This all started to bring back memories about this man that used to live in my aunts house, who later married one of my mothers's sisters. He molested us everytime we went over to that house. We talked to my other cousins and this happend to them too. What should we do? My sister and I are 33yrs. old. My cousins are a not that much younger. We tried to talk to him and he says we cannot do anything because its been so long. He is not scared at all. We were about 5 or 6 years old I believe. I need some advice. I have been doing some research but have not found the answeres I need.

Answer 1

The law in California is weird and has lots of loopholes that benefit the victim. Read this for a discussion: http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/california-statute-of-limitations-on-sexual-abuse.html

I would contact the police and tell them your story.

The other thing that can be an issue is what the SOL was at the time the crime occurred. If the SOL elapsed before the new law was written a change of the law can not reactive the SOL. There is a good example of this on the page linked above. Again , I would still contact the police. Call the detectives directly, not 911.

Answer 2

I do not know.. this was an issue for the Priest molesters and how they got out of a lot of the criminal issues though.. I suspect that the statute was tolled until you were 18 .. and then ran in 6 -10 years.

That is not to say you should not report him to the police. They may find a loophole and keep him under investigation.

Doing something now may not punish him for his past but it might protect some other little girls from molestation..

(btw If this is true is your aunt still married to him?)

Answer 3

Here is one California Statute of limitations statute you may take a look at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=57892719919+2+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

also see this statute from California: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=57918420879+2+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

The real problem here is when did the crime become known? If it just became known and law enforcement was unaware of it, it would be my opinion, that it could be prosecuted . If you read the above statutes you will discover that until the offense becomes known the Statute of limitations does not run. Therefore, no tolling of the statute of limitations. The Statute of limitations begins to run once the offense becomes known .
However be mindful of many jusrisdictions requiring a prosecution to be brought with ing a certain number of years after commission of the offense.
The real problem here is that you were aware of what he was doing years ago and did not file a compalint against him. In that case , it would seem that the statute of limitations has run on those offenses. It should have been prosecuted years ago. But take heart.

There is another way of looking at this: ask yourself whether or not you wish to bring a civl action against him because of Newly Discovered Evidence if you have discovered new facts that you were never aware of . If that is the case you may have a civil action against him on several counts. Remember , after all, the class action suits filed against Catholic Priests for molestation after years of suffering by the victims of those Priests; So it is not all bad news. Please read those Criminal Statutes I posted in this answer. Get back to me if you wish.

BTW, there are certain criminal offenses that have no statute of limitations such as Murder, secret offenses, conspiracy, etc,etc. Good luck and find yourself a good Civil lawyer to at least briing a possible civil lawsuit against him for the abuse. It is an option. There are certain causes of action available to you.

Answer 4

I dunno if this helps:

http://library.findlaw.com/1999/Aug/1/130325.html

I sure hope it does