STAND. COM. REP. NO.  770-14

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

 

RE:   H.B. No. 2034

      H.D. 2

 

 

 

 

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2034, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SEXUAL ASSAULT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to provide survivors of sexual assault with additional time to engage with the legal system by eliminating the statute of limitations for criminal and civil actions arising from sexual assault in the first and second degrees and continuous sexual assault of a minor under the age of fourteen years.

 

     The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney for the County of Hawai‘i, Hawaii State Democratic Women's Caucus, YWCA of O‘ahu, Sex Abuse Treatment Center, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Rainbow Family 808, and numerous concerned citizens testified in support of this measure.  The Office of the Public Defender opposed this measure.  The Department of the Attorney General provided comments.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Limiting the removal of the statute of limitations in civil cases to actions against persons who perpetrated the act that constituted or would have constituted the criminal offense of sexual assault in the first or second degree or continuous sexual assault of a minor under the age of fourteen years; and

 

(2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2034, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2034, H.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair