Pennsylvania-Top Pa. Election Official Boockvar To Step Down After Error Delays Sex Abuse Reform

By Elizabeth Hardison Stephen Caruso, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star

February 1, 2021

(*This developing story will be updated)

A top Pennsylvania state official is leaving her post after a blunder by her office set back a years-long effort to amend the state constitution and give child sex abuse victims their day in court.

Gov. Tom Wolf’s office announced Monday that Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar would leave her post Friday, Feb. 5 after her agency failed to notify the public of a a proposed change to Pennsylvania’s constitution: an amendment that would give victims of child sexual abuse a two-year retroactive window to sue perpetrators in decades-old cases, which was on track to go before voters this year.

Boockvar’s oversight and expected resignation were first reported by the investigative news outlet Spotlight PA on Monday.

Two lawmakers who sponsored the proposed amendment — and who were both victims of abuse at the hands of Catholic priests — immediately decried the oversight.

“I feel like I got up and should still be sleeping,” Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, and a longtime advocate for the lawsuit window, told the Capital-Star, his voice flat. “That this is just a joke, a bad joke.”

Occasionally pausing to collect himself, Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair, likewise expressed shock at Boockvar’s “incompetence.”

“We were so close to making history in Pennsylvania, now we’re going to make history in such an ugly painful inconsolable way,” Gregory told the Capital-Star.

Lawmakers must approve a proposed constitutional amendment in two consecutive legislative sessions before it can go to voters in a referendum. The Department of State must advertise the proposed change in newspapers each time it is approved, Spotlight PA reported.

The General Assembly passed the proposed amendment in November 2019. But Boockvar’s agency didn’t advertise it as required, Spotlight PA further reported.

The apparent oversight sets the clock back on the entire amendment process. Now, the earliest that could happen is 2023.

Boockvar could not be immediately reached for comment Monday. Both Rozzi and Gregory said that Wolf promised to conduct an internal investigation of the error.

The proposed constitutional amendment was a compromise offered in 2019 by former Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, following years of activism by victims of clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania’s current statute of limitations allows victims of child sex crimes to pursue civil suits until they turn 30. But a 2018 grand jury report detailing clergy abuse and cover up in Pennsylvania’s Catholic dioceses recommended implementing a retroactive window to let them pursue justice in decades-old abuse cases.

Scarnati said such a measure would be unconstitutional and proposed an amendment in 2019 that he said would preempt court challenges. But the maneuver never had the support of victims, who said the lengthy referendum process deferred justice.

Jennifer Storm, who was one of the most vocal proponents of the clergy sex abuse reforms during her time as Pennsylvania’s appointed victim advocate, called the alleged error by the Department of State an “unfortunate oversight.”

“[Lawmakers] need to pass the window now,” said Storm, who was convening a Zoom call to break the news to abuser survivors Monday morning. “You can’t with any good conscience make survivors wait until 2023.”

Rozzi and Gregory told victims to stay strong, and that they remained “resolute” in seeing a window through to the finish.

Agreeing with Storm, Rozzi said the General Assembly should quickly implement a window by statute instead of waiting for another 24 months.

“Even though we are in a situation where we can shed many tears, we still have to forge ahead and come to an answer that will make this situation right,” Rozzi said.

This story was originally published by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. For more stories from the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, visit PennCapital-Star.com.