Will Oregon Stand for Sex Abuse Victims? (VIDEO)

While church and state are separate in the United States, Oregon's government may be more interested in the welfare of churches than victims.

Photo and video by Tim King Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - Oregon sex abuse survivors joined Portland Attorney Kelly Clark at the capitol in Salem today, to attend a hearing for a bill that would extend the window of time sex abuse survivors have to take action against the person or people who abused them.

Clark is known for taking sex abuse suspects to task and rallying endlessly for victims.

At this time, the cut off age for sex abuse victims to come forward, is 24.

Many of the cases originate from churches in Oregon and experts say it often takes several decades for a person to comprehend the magnitude of their experience and come forward.

The Portland Archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Oregon, much like in other locations including Boston, have worked hard to avoid responsibility and liability for pedophiles who currently or formerly exist as elevated members of the various churches.

Victims and their advocates, including the group SNAP, (Survivors Network of people Abused by Priests) along with Private Investigator Dawn Krantz-Watts of All Things Legal Investigations in Portland, say they are unhappy with the way the bill is progressing and they believe it may fail due to the relationships that exist between the Oregon Senate and various church groups.

In denying, delaying or killing this legislation, Oregon becomes extremely hypocritical as a government that strongly condemns the sexual abuse and exploitation of children, while struggling with basic common sense answers for the people lucky enough to survive the abuse in the first place.

I interviewed Clark and Krantz-Watts and three people who are survivors today after the first round of hearings at the capitol.

Watch the video news report:

Video

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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Since when is religion separate from "state" or politics?? we see it everyday, in which someones "christian views" dictates, and empowers those, who make their own laws, commonly called, "legislate from the bench". Oregon does not even enforce those laws that are on the books...or we would not have the many abused cases to go unpunished, because some of these "right wingers" or "bible toting" individuals, have infiltrated every aspect of our society, including the judiciary

Since when is religion separate fron "state" or politics?? we see it everyday, in which someones "christian views" dictates, and empowers those, who make theoir own laws, commonly called, "legislate from the bench". Oregon does not even enforce those laws that are on the books...or we would not have the many abused cases to go unpunished, because some of these "right wingers" or "bible toting" individuals, have infiltrated every aspect of our society, including the judiciary

Thanks for another cutting edge important story Salem-News. My own brother who is in his 60's continues to suffer from abuse by Father Grammond, the thankfully dead abuser of hundreds of Oregon Catholic boys. There should be absolutely no limit to prosecution and payment for these crimes against children. Let the Pope sell the Sistine Chapel if he must.

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