Posted on 04/05/2002 12:48:05 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Noted New York civil rights lawyer Ron Kuby said Friday that Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse shouldn't be prosecuted beyond the statute of limitations, an option prosecutors around the country are currently exploring, for the same reason ex-President Clinton wasn't charged with raping Arkansas businesswoman Juanita Broaddrick.
"We have statutes of limitation for reasons," Kuby said in an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com.
"And with the exception of murder virtually every other crime has a statute of limitations because after a certain period of time it becomes virtually impossible for someone to defend themselves against an accusation."
The radical leftist lawyer saw a parallel with the Clinton Rapegate scandal.
"It's the same problem I had with the (Juanita) Broaddrick rape allegations," he told NewsMax. "She waited so long to come forward that when she did, it became virtually impossible to ascertain the truth or falsity of the allegations."
Memories tend to fail with time, witnesses die and documents are lost or destroyed, he explained, "which is why we have statutes of limitation in the first place."
On Friday the New York Times reported that prosecutors all over the United States are looking into ways around the statute of limitation for sex abuse crimes. But the effort appears directed exclusively against Catholic priests alone.
In Maine, eight district attorneys have asked the Portland Diocese to release records of sex abuse allegations going back 75 years, the Times said. In most jurisdictions, the statute of limitation for sex crimes is 10 years or less.
Catholic League President William Donohue agreed with Kuby.
"This is an example of overreaching," he told NewsMax. "If you want to drop the statute of limitation requirement, fine - then do it. But do it for everybody else out there."
Donohue called prosecutors' plans to try priests based on 40 and 50 year-old allegations "a witch hunt."
"I'm all in favor of going after the guilty in the Catholic Church," he explained. "I'm not defending any of the evil acts that have been done. But at the same time, I'm not going to turn a blind eye to people who say,' We have one rule for Catholic priests and we're going to have another rule for everyone else.'"
Like Kuby, the Catholic League chief saw a tie-in to the Clinton sex scandal.
"Some of these people who are acting like voyeurs looking into the Catholic Church put on blinders when it came to President Clinton, who made a national spectacle of himself tomcatting around the country and then covering it up."
Attorney Kuby also said that prosecuting priests based on crimes that took place beyond the statute of limitations may be unconstitutional and could likely result in having their cases overturned on appeal.
Even a 1993 California law that struck down the state's statute of limitations for sex abuse cases, under which Santa Rosa Rev. Don Kimball is currently being prosecuted on a 25-year-old rape charge, may be seriously flawed.
"You cannot retroactively impose a new statute of limitation," Kuby contended. "Generally speaking, if you're going to end statutes of limitation it has to be done prospectively."
Arkansas District Attorney Lawrence Jegley, in whose Pulaski County jurisdiction the alleged Clinton rape took place in 1978, said his office had yet to decide whether to pursue sex crimes committed by priests beyond the statute of limitation, which in Arkansas is seven years.
"We don't have any allegations (against priests)," Jegley told NewsMax. "I haven't even thought about it, to be honest."
Jegley said that in certain cases the statute of limitations could be waived but until a police agency contacts him with a specific allegation, he had no opinion.
Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, in whose jurisdiction Mr. Clinton lives, did not return a call by press time.
Call to the offices of Bill and Hillary Clinton requesting reaction to the Times report also went unreturned.
Ping! My guess is that the former prez has Kuby on a retainer fearing a backlash.
And I really do hate to denigrate dog excrement in such a way.
Do a google for "sleazy, low-life, ambulance chasing, good-for-nothing lawyer", and the only thing that'll come up is Kuby.
You know what they say about the shoe fitting...
I'd rather be a right-wing crackpot than a sleazy, no-life, idiotic, piece of shite like Kuby.
To hell with him and all his liberal buds.
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