Bethel bill gives more time to report sex crimes

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February 7, 2012

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Tue Feb 07, 2012, 07:52 AM EST

The Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee could take up a bill this week that would clarify and extend the time period in which those accused of sex crimes against minors can be prosecuted.

“We had a committee hearing Wednesday and there were a few questions from some of the members. It was nothing big, but we needed to get it right before we sent it out,” said state Sen. Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton, the sponsor of the bill.

The law currently tolls the statute of limitations, the time in which legal proceedings can start, for sex crimes against children under 16 until the alleged victim’s 16th birthday or until a report is filed. That’s when the clock starts ticking.

“Part of the problems we have now is that of the things that will start the statute of limitations running is a report to law enforcement. What sometimes happen is that there is fight over what is and is not a report, so there’s sometimes some confusion and uncertainty there,” Bethel said.

Bethel’s bill, Senate Bill 315, seeks to remove that uncertainty by removing any reference to a report and tying the statute of limitations to the alleged victim’s birthday.

“(The statute) is tolled until the victim’s 18th birthday then it runs for 10 years for all sex crimes except (forcible) rape. The statute for rape is already 15 years, and we wanted to make sure there was no scenario where we shortened the statute,” Bethel said.

By setting the statute of limitations at 10 years for all crimes except rape, Bethel says the bill would remove another source of uncertainly.

“The statute are currently different for different crimes,” he said.

Local law enforcement welcomes the bill.

“I don’t recall any recent cases where this has been an issue. But this is an improvement. Any time you have similar crimes with different statutes of limitations it does cause a little bit of difficulty for law enforcement,” said Whitfield County Sheriff’s Maj. John Gibson. “From a law enforcement standpoint, anything that creates more uniformity in the statute and removes any uncertainty is good.”

Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker agrees.

“I haven’t had a chance to read the full bill, but it should be a positive for law enforcement,” he said. “By allowing that extra time, it gives law enforcement more time to development information.”

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Bethel bill gives more time to report sex crimes

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