Latest / Brian Thomas / Ohioans For Child Protection

Transcript

Ohioans For Child Protection · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: To you. I am pleased. Welcome to the 55 KRC
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show. Someone who is absolutely fighting for those who
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  Speaker 1: have been, well, molested by perverts as children. It's the
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  Speaker 1: Ohioans for Child Protection. It's an advocacy organization formed by
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  Speaker 1: parents and grandparents and other concerned folks dedicated to securing
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  Speaker 1: stronger legal protections and justice for survivors of childhood sexual
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  Speaker 1: abuse in Ohio. And this group has also really scored
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful victory in the form of the House Bill
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  Speaker 1: 322 last year, criminalizing patterns of inappropriate behavior. That's that
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  Speaker 1: grooming bill that was passed. Welcome, Rebecca Serendorf. It is
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  Speaker 1: certainly a pleasure to have you here on the 55KRC
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show, and thanks for what you're doing.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me back on.
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  Speaker 3: It's great when we have folks in our community that
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  Speaker 3: really care about the safety of children and keep following
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  Speaker 3: this story.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. And you know, one of the disturbing things, and
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  Speaker 1: we can talk about the, is it Jeff or Joff
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  Speaker 1: drew this confessed rapist, former Catholic priest, uh, and his
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  Speaker 1: antics are as disgusting as they are. It kind of
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  Speaker 1: led to the discussion about the Ohio statute of limitations,
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  Speaker 1: which currently requires. So if, if some person was molested
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  Speaker 1: as a young person, there's a period of time that
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  Speaker 1: requires them to file a civil lawsuit within 30 years
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  Speaker 1: or more. criminal charges, which must be brought by the
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  Speaker 1: prosecutors by age 43. Rebecca, can you explain where 30
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  Speaker 1: and 43 came along? Because 43 sounds particularly arbitrary. So
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  Speaker 1: how do we get to that random number? Because that
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  Speaker 1: 43 cutoff period directly affected one of the victims of
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  Speaker 1: this confessed rapist here in the area.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it did.
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  Speaker 3: And I think when 20 years ago, about the last
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  Speaker 3: time Ohio took a look at its statute of limitations,
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  Speaker 3: We looked pretty much the same as the rest of
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  Speaker 3: the country when it came time to these arbitrary deadlines.
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  Speaker 3: And a lot of that was because our society kind
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  Speaker 3: of had some myths in our mind about how child
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  Speaker 3: sex abuse works. I think a lot of people were
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  Speaker 3: kind of raised on that concept of stranger danger. And
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  Speaker 3: we tell our kids not to talk to strangers. And
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  Speaker 3: that typical don't get in someone's car thing, certainly we
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  Speaker 3: should still do. But actually, most children are abused by
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  Speaker 3: someone that they know and that the family generally trust.
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  Speaker 3: And we also tend to believe that children are going
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  Speaker 3: to run home and tell a parent. And that's just
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  Speaker 3: simply not how this works. There's a tremendous amount of
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  Speaker 3: trauma after that kind of assault. And many times offenders
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  Speaker 3: are threatening and manipulating a child before the abuse, during
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  Speaker 3: the abuse, after, so they can actually stop the child
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  Speaker 3: from disclosing.
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  Speaker 2: And so the average.
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  Speaker 3: Age to disclose is age 52. And as other states
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  Speaker 3: have been actually looking on the research regarding trauma, they
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  Speaker 3: decided to eliminate the statute of limitations criminally because the
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  Speaker 3: average age fixated offender is basically racks up around 150
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  Speaker 3: victims in their lifetime. And so you can't from a
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  Speaker 3: public safety issue, just leave people out there that are
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  Speaker 3: going to keep on offending against children just because we've
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  Speaker 3: set some arbitrary deadlines.
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  Speaker 2: We also have electronic evidence and.
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  Speaker 3: So many more things now that we understand this isn't
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  Speaker 3: a case of, Oh, there's no evidence now.
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  Speaker 1: Right. That has been the longstanding reason for statute of limitations,
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  Speaker 1: because witnesses' recollections fade over time. They might be incorrectly
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  Speaker 1: remembering something or thinking something actually happened that didn't. I
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  Speaker 1: understand that. But then there's also the death of people
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  Speaker 1: who have factual information relating to whatever was alleged here. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that makes sense. But you're right, evidentially speaking. But the
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  Speaker 1: other component of that, Rebecca, and my point has always been, whoa, whoa, whoa,
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  Speaker 1: it's a criminal prosecution. You've got to prove guilt beyond
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  Speaker 1: a reasonable doubt. That's a tough standard in any case,
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  Speaker 1: even if everybody's alive well and the recollections are within
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  Speaker 1: a short period of time. So defense attorneys will still
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  Speaker 1: be able to argue that and probably successfully in some cases.
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  Speaker 3: I know RAINN estimates that we're only convicting around 2%
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  Speaker 3: of offenders in sexual violence cases anyway. So we have
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  Speaker 3: incredibly low conviction rates. Instead, if we were to take
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  Speaker 3: a look at the Jeff Drew case, as it kind
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  Speaker 3: of encapsulates a lot of problems, right? We have two
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  Speaker 3: men come forward saying that they were abused in the
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  Speaker 3: same period of time, in the same school building, in
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  Speaker 3: a similar manner. One man is younger than 43 in
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  Speaker 3: the moment, and he gets to bring the criminal charges.
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  Speaker 3: The other man is just past being 43 years old,
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  Speaker 3: and therefore he can't. There's the guilty plea that Jeff drew,
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  Speaker 3: gets seven years for nine counts of child rape, and
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  Speaker 3: now he's out in our community. what would the sentencing
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  Speaker 3: look like? What would that negotiation have looked like instead
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  Speaker 3: if it was two men able to bring the criminal
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  Speaker 3: charges based off the evidence that they had? And so
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  Speaker 3: you can see this play out as a public safety
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  Speaker 3: issue in our community because we arbitrarily opened up court
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  Speaker 3: doors for one man and shut them up for another.
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  Speaker 2: And now 44 states have eliminated this.
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  Speaker 3: And what we inadvertently have done here in Ohio is
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  Speaker 3: we've created a legal sanctuary child rapist because they know
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  Speaker 3: we're one of the handful of states in the country
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  Speaker 3: that they're going to have a clock that they can
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  Speaker 3: run out.
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  Speaker 2: And they do know about delayed disclosure, right? Yes.
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  Speaker 3: Boy, do they know about their victims.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, they do. And because many of them have threatened
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  Speaker 1: their victims with grievous bodily harm to the victim themselves
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  Speaker 1: or the family members or maybe the pet dog, or
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  Speaker 1: you can see how bad this can get. And real
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  Speaker 1: quick here, we'll bring you back, Rebecca Serndorf, to talk
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  Speaker 1: a little more about the Ohio Child Protection folks and
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  Speaker 1: what you guys are doing to change the law in
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  Speaker 1: the state of Ohio. But is it also true that
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  Speaker 1: quite often the victim themselves feels guilty or responsible for this,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore they're embarrassed or fearful that saying something might, well,
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  Speaker 1: expose them to some sort of condemnation?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, most certainly.
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  Speaker 3: I think predators do an excellent job of trying to
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  Speaker 3: make their victim feel complicit. Yeah. or twist in their
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  Speaker 3: minds that just because they froze, which is a very
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  Speaker 3: normal trauma response.
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  Speaker 2: For people, is to freeze.
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  Speaker 3: And they try to manipulate that as if the compliance
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  Speaker 3: and the assault was somehow complicity.
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  Speaker 2: And it just simply isn't.
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  Speaker 3: A child is always the victim when they're being assaulted.
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  Speaker 2: By an adult.
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  Speaker 1: Always. Rebecca Sorendorf, Ohio's for Child Protection. We'll bring her
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  Speaker 1: back and talk more about this important, hopefully changing law.
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  Speaker 1: Don't go away. It's 847-55-KRC-D Talk Station. 55 KRC. 55 KRC,
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  Speaker 1: the talk station. Brian Thomas with Rebecca Surindorf. She's with
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  Speaker 1: Ohioans for Child Protection. Got some victory last year with
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  Speaker 1: the grooming bill and trying to get the statute of
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  Speaker 1: limitations changed. It looks like Bill Blessing, Senator Blessing, is
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  Speaker 1: on your side. And he realizes because taking the statute
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  Speaker 1: of limitations away would allow prosecutors to go after these
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  Speaker 1: rapists like the priest, a confessed rapist, Jeff Drew. But also...
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  Speaker 1: And Bill Blessing's identified as Catholic in the reporting, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to give Paula Christian over at WCPO credit
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  Speaker 1: for the reporting, but he recognizes that maybe the institutions
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  Speaker 1: themselves need to be held accountable, and that's what he's saying.
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  Speaker 1: You've got to be able to hold the institutions accountable,
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  Speaker 1: which would include the Catholic Church. Yes, he admits it
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  Speaker 1: would open the floodgates, no question, but that's okay. Because
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  Speaker 1: I think part of the problem here is a lot
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  Speaker 1: of my listeners have chimed in on this, including me.
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  Speaker 1: I remember when I was in high school, there were
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  Speaker 1: two teachers that were engaged in relations with students. And
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  Speaker 1: everybody knew about it, Rebecca, but no one said anything
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  Speaker 1: or did anything. And then listener after listener called in
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  Speaker 1: with similar tales, like, yeah, they all knew about it.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody said anything. Part of the big problem is here.
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  Speaker 1: People aren't opening their mouths, but you dealt with that.
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  Speaker 1: I believe in the grooming bill, the house bill three 22,
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  Speaker 1: which penalizes folks who are obligated to report abuse goes
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  Speaker 1: after them. So there's some accountability. Like for example, if
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  Speaker 1: a teacher is aware of it, they now could possibly
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  Speaker 1: be held accountable under house bill three 22. Is that correct?
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  Speaker 2: Rebecca?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, House Bill 322 extended the statute of limitations also
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  Speaker 3: on mandated reporting, because I think so often when there's
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  Speaker 3: a failure of mandated reporting, by the time you realize
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  Speaker 3: that you can actually take that to a prosecutor, generally
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  Speaker 3: the statute of limitations pass. So we saw that go
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  Speaker 3: from a two-year statute of limitation to a four-year one,
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  Speaker 3: in part because there were parents reporting concerning behavior regarding
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  Speaker 3: Jeff drew in the fall of 2018, um, that we
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  Speaker 3: were not aware of until we were passed the SOL
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  Speaker 3: in 2020. And it just kind of brought to mind
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  Speaker 3: that this was yet another system failure that people that
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  Speaker 3: were mandated reporters, um, actually were not reporting that. And
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  Speaker 3: they may have had knowledge that Jeff drew in that
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  Speaker 3: same time period was under his third criminal investigation in
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  Speaker 3: Butler county.
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  Speaker 1: All right. So now has there been an actual bill
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  Speaker 1: introduced with regard to the seemingly arbitrary 30 and 43
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  Speaker 1: year old statute of limitations cutoffs?
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  Speaker 3: Senator Blessing has actually submitted for a bill to be drafted,
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  Speaker 3: and he believes that we'll see a bill number here
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  Speaker 3: shortly this fall before the state house goes back for
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  Speaker 3: lame duck. But we can already start talking to our
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  Speaker 3: state house leaders right now about what we want to
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  Speaker 3: see in Ohio law.
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  Speaker 2: So you can email your own House.
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  Speaker 3: Rep at OhioHouse.gov or OhioSenate.gov. But also it's great to
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  Speaker 3: reach out to Senate President McCauley and also House Speaker
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  Speaker 3: Huffman because they're the leadership here in the state and
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  Speaker 3: they get to set the agenda. And if we're letting
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  Speaker 3: them know what an important public safety issue this is
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  Speaker 3: for us, they can prioritize it and make sure that
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  Speaker 3: Ohio just gets in line with the rest of the
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  Speaker 3: country and closes up this loophole for child offenders.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the numbers are definitely, again, us since we're only
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  Speaker 1: one of six states now in the entire union that
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  Speaker 1: has these in place. But what is standing in the
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  Speaker 1: way of Rebecca Sorondor from Ohioans for Child Protection? Because
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  Speaker 1: I have it, because I'm reading it, at least attributed
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  Speaker 1: to the insurance industry and the Catholic Church who stood
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  Speaker 1: in the way of these efforts over the past 20 years,
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  Speaker 1: because you were quoted as saying, hey, For the last
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  Speaker 1: 20 years, nearly every General Assembly, somebody has presented a
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  Speaker 1: statute of limitations bill, but they've all gotten shot down
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  Speaker 1: or didn't advance. Is it really the Catholic Church and
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  Speaker 1: the insurance industry that have that much power?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that in other states, if you take
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  Speaker 3: a look at who has been lobbying against these bills
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  Speaker 3: and who challenges them in court, that's generally what you see.
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  Speaker 3: And we probably have similar dynamics.
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  Speaker 2: Here, but... Also, so what, right?
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  Speaker 3: The Catholic church exists in every state, yet 44 of
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  Speaker 3: them managed to get this bill passed.
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  Speaker 2: So we can most certainly do it.
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  Speaker 3: But I do think the civil piece, which is what
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  Speaker 3: opens up those court doors, which is a different standard
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  Speaker 3: as well.
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  Speaker 2: And in Ohio, if.
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  Speaker 3: We can open up our civil court, we are the
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  Speaker 3: only state in the country that has a civil registry.
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  Speaker 3: So this is this incredible opportunity actually that we can
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  Speaker 3: have a list with the attorney general that if someone
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  Speaker 3: was found in civil court to have sexually abused a child,
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  Speaker 3: we can actually now record their name on a civil
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  Speaker 3: registry and our youth serving organizations can start using that
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  Speaker 3: as a resource to have a better gate on their
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  Speaker 3: doors that they know that they're actually letting in adults
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  Speaker 3: that are suitable to work with children.
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  Speaker 1: That sounds logical and reasonable. Rebecca Serendorf, The message to
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  Speaker 1: my listeners, I guess, is get in touch with the
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  Speaker 1: elected officials and have them, well, advance legislation to get
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  Speaker 1: rid of the statute of limitations. Is it simple as that?
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  Speaker 2: It really is. And this is most certainly a bipartisan issue.
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  Speaker 3: Teresa, my co-founder, the two of us have been visiting
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  Speaker 3: like block watches and Republican clubs and Democratic clubs in
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  Speaker 3: our county and everywhere we go. We meet people that
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  Speaker 3: are just horrified that Ohio's law is so dated. And
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  Speaker 3: we talk to folks afterwards that then tell us that
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  Speaker 3: they were abused or someone really close.
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  Speaker 2: To them was. And it's just really a shame.
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  Speaker 3: That we kind of let this, you know, public safety
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  Speaker 3: problem that affects one in four girls and probably around
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  Speaker 3: one in 10 boys to continue on just because it
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  Speaker 3: isn't being made a priority.
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  Speaker 1: This is being made a priority, and apparently enough people
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  Speaker 1: aren't stepping up and calling out these folks when they
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  Speaker 1: have indications or evidence that these children are being molested.
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  Speaker 1: You cannot say something early enough. And, of course, when
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  Speaker 1: you look at what happened with Jeff Drew and his victims,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, this went over a period of years.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, three decades, three counties in Ohio, there were reported
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  Speaker 3: behaviors with him. And I think another lesson in this
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  Speaker 3: is that when you have great training programs, there's a
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  Speaker 3: real increase of.
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  Speaker 2: people that know what.
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  Speaker 3: They're looking for when a child's being groomed, because this
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  Speaker 3: looks so different from a normal, healthy mentoring relationship. And
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  Speaker 3: if you can train people to spot it, you can
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  Speaker 3: actually cut down an offending timeline. Not only are you
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  Speaker 3: helping the child right there in front of you in
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  Speaker 3: this moment, you are also preventing future abuse of other
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  Speaker 3: children that this predator hasn't come in contact with yet.
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  Speaker 1: Rebecca Serndorf, it is a distinct pleasure having you on today.
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  Speaker 1: I thank you for what you're doing on behalf of
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  Speaker 1: the victims out in the world, and we'll keep our
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  Speaker 1: fingers crossed we actually get some sanity here in the
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  Speaker 1: state of Ohio.