02-05-2025
Sexual abuse survivors again ask Michigan lawmakers for more time to sue perpetrators
Michigan Capitol | Susan J. Demas
Testifying in front of Michigan state lawmakers last legislative session as a survivor of rape was one of the most terrifying and difficult experiences of Emily Bice's life, she told state Senators Thursday.
But seeing the legislation to expand the time window survivors of sexual assault have to sue perpetrators fail to make it to the governor's desk in order to become law was a new level of pain.
This is the fifth session in a row that bills to expand the timeframe survivors of sexual violence have to file civil suits, as well as legislation to eliminate Michigan's governmental immunity shield against sexual abuse civil cases, have been taken up. Advocates argue Michigan has needlessly narrow statute of limitation laws on filing civil suits after an assault, while it can take a survivor years to disclose abuse, often decades if the victim was a child at the time of the abuse.
Bice told lawmakers on the state Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety Committee Thursday that at age 19 she wasn't ready to disclose that she had been raped, much less advocate for herself and seek out justice. She recalled the first therapist she spoke to telling her 'You were drunk and got into a cab alone. what did you expect to happen?'.
Currently, victims in Michigan have three years after realizing they have been assaulted or until their 28th birthday, whichever is later, to sue their perpetrators. The window used to be even smaller, with the cutoff being a victim's 19th birthday before 2018, a change that came a result of mass legislative efforts to reform sexual violence laws following the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal, where hundreds of athletes and former patients of the Michigan State University and Olympic gymnastics doctor came forward with their stories of abuse.
By the time the law changed in 2018, it was too late for Bice to sue her perpetrator when she was ready.
'I would not wish the last 10 years on my worst enemy, I would not wish this on anyone. The only thing I would wish for is change. When someone has to go through this, I wish that the world on the other end is kinder to them than it was to me,' Bice said.
Senate Bills 257, 258 and 259 seek to increase the timeframe victims have to file civil suits to 10 years after the crime, 7 years after realizing they have been assaulted or by the time they reach 42 years old.
Michigan has been the backdrop of two of the largest collegiate sex abuse scandals in recent years, bill sponsor Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) told senators, with Nassar at MSU and then the late University of Michigan doctor, Robert Anderson, where more than a thousand individuals accused the sports doctor of sexual assault. With all the painful experiences that have 'plagued' the state, Hertel said it's time for lawmakers to learn from what has happened, and help end systematic failures that both abusers and institutions have exploited to avoid accountability.
Survivors of Nassar's abuse have been at the forefront of the effort to create new laws to protect Michigan from sexual perpetrators and foster system changes aimed to ease the reporting of sexual crimes since 2017. Efforts to eliminate Michigan's governmental immunity protections for public schools and colleges against liability in sexual violence civil suits have been unsuccessful each session.
Senate Bills 260 and 261 would remove governmental immunity in sexual violence civil cases for public universities, public colleges, and school districts when employees were the perpetrator and the institutions neglected to reasonably prevent, intervene or report the abuse.
It wasn't until he was 54 years old, when Brian Hurtekant disclosed he had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by a priest his family became close with when he was 13, following the death of his brother.
The two connected over a love of flying, Hurtekant said, as the priest was a private pilot and would take him for rides because Hurtekant dreamed of becoming a pilot.
But the abuse made Hurtekant afraid of being around other men, preventing him from participating in sports, gym class and the Air Force.
'He robbed me… this is a murder of my soul. I could have been better. I still think I did pretty damn good,' Hurtekant said.
All the bills presented Thursday have a history of bipartisanship, though this session there are no Republican sponsors. But it shouldn't matter what side of the political aisle lawmakers sit on, Hurtekant said, no survivor should be robbed of their day in court after losing so much to sexual violence.
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