Gwen Green Promotes New Bill

By Kyle Clark

Gwen Green is a State Representative of Colorado. She is sixty nine years old with four children and nine grandchildren. She has been slandered because of her sponsoring a bill in 2006 to remove the civil statute of limitations for sexual crimes against children. She is sponsoring this legislation again and agreed to be interviewed, Saturday January 19 th about her bill.

So you're Gwen Green, State Representative, and could you please tell me what district you represent?

I represent House District Twenty-Three, which encompasses Golden, Applewood, part of Fairmont, and North Lakewood.

You have a bill that you're trying to pass, bill 08-1011. In your own words, can you explain what the bill is proposing?

I sure can. I call this bill the "Children's Protection Bill" and the reason I'm bringing it forward is because some years ago I was told by the director of Rape Awareness and Sexual Assault Prevention that most of the sexual assaults on children are perpetrated by people they know or their families know. I thought if I could figure out a way to reduce that, I'd be helping those children a great deal. So, I tried to work on that, and this bill is what I've come up with. What it does is it lifts the statute of limitations on sexual crimes against children. It also institutes something called "a window" for people whose statute has already run. If they have been assaulted as a child, they would be able to bring forth a civil suit.

A similar piece of legislation was brought two years ago. Unfortunately, the day before the session ended, it failed. During the testimony in committee on this first bill, I heard time after time from victims that they could not begin to even recognize limitations and certainly they could not even begin to deal with the assault until maybe they were in their thirties, forties, fifties, or sixties even. This bill would give those people a chance to come forward against their perpetrator. Even against any entity that protected the perpetrator that knowingly placed the pedophile around children. If they knew he was a pedophile and they placed that person around children, they would be responsible and could be sued. It gives those people a chance to come forward.

This bill will protect people thirty, forty, fifty years from now because it can take that long for them to come forward, and in the meantime, the sexual predator is still out there molesting children. If they have the window, it protects children today because we have people coming forward today who say that they were molested forty years ago and they can name the molester and the public knows that this person who was working as a coach, Boy Scout leader, psychiatrist is a sexual predator. So it's a very important bill.

That actually answers a question I was about to ask. From a personal review of the bill, I was unsure if the bill would only affect victims whose statute has already run out or can still protect people years from now. However, you just stated that all are protected by this bill no matter when the assault originated.

That's correct. By lifting the statute of limitations, they can come forward any time. Now presently, there's no statute of limitations for murder or forgery. Well, the affect of sexual assault on a child is much worse than the affect forgery has on someone. As damaging as that can be, you can only loose all your money. Sexual assault on a child is something that the child, if they grow up, needs to cope with, always.

Currently, while the bill isn't in effect, what are the limitations for a victim of sexual abuse to come forward as it pertains to the law?

Victims currently have six years from the time they reach the age of majority, eighteen. So if they were assaulted as a child, they would have until age twenty-four to come forward.

Has there been much support for this bill?

There is a lot of support for this bill from individual members of the community. When it was introduced, it was put in the Rocky Mountain News and most of the time they were very supportive. There is opposition, and it comes from the Roman Catholic Church and from the insurance companies. I think I can work with the insurance companies; they have a concern with doing away with the statute completely. They'd like a time limit so that it's easier for them to deal with the underwriting and how to determine a premium they need to charge people. So I'll be working with the insurance companies on that.

As for the Roman Catholic Church, is there something specific that they're opposed to?

They have said that their concern that this legislation would bankrupt them if it passed. That says to me that there are instances of sexual predators being knowingly placed among children in a Roman Catholic hierarchy. I don't know why else they would be concerned about going bankrupt. However, they say there is no problem so I don't understand why they are fighting this. And in the event as far as bankruptcy, the limits are of monetary damages that can be received in a lawsuit and are very low. The most they could get would be five-hundred thousand dollars unless the court found that they were quite rotten in their behavior and they could raise it to seven-hundred and fifty thousand. I understand that happens rarely. I don't think the church needs to be concerned about going bankrupt.

So they didn't give you a direct answer?

No. The reason they have publicized as being against this bill is that they would go bankrupt and they insist that they have no problem.

Is there anything else you would like to mention about the bill?

Yes. I have a coalition working with me, the Association for the Prevention of Sexual Assault on Children, the Colorado branch of the National Association of Social Workers, and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. They have been very helpful in working with me. I understand that there are other groups that are very supportive of this legislation, and I certainly hope it passes because I think the children of Colorado really deserve this and need this.

What else do you hope to achieve during your term in office?

Thank you very much. I'm very interested in protecting children and protecting vulnerable people. Perhaps it's because of my social work background, but I'll be bringing forth legislation on protecting kids from sexual abuse in schools, protecting the developmentally disabled, and protecting from any caregiver who has anger issues and mistreats them.

I have already passed two bills. One would allow the Department of Health Care to contract with pharmacists so that the pharmacist can sort of oversee the client's medications. Right now, we have a law where they can do that with Medicaid patients. My bill expands that to people on the programs run by the Health Care Policy and Finance Department. So the pharmacist would do things like if Mrs. Jones is not taking her medicine and she won't take it because it's very expensive, he would have the ability to call her doctor and maybe suggest another medication that the client could afford. He has the authority to talk to the client about less expensive medications, the importance of taking their medications, and giving an analysis of the medications the patient is on because maybe the patient could get by with less medication. It's estimated that this program would save each person on the program thirty percent on their medication costs.

I also passed legislation that addresses a problem with the hospital board at Colorado University Health and Sciences Center. The law was written to assign to the board a representative from the six congressional districts. With the growth in population, we currently have a seventh congressional district, which we are in. So the bill adds another member to the board to represent our district.

I have got one that protects the consumer against insurance fraud where the insurance company might promise to cover A, B, or C and the consumer ends up having A, B, or C and the insurance company denies them it gives the insurance commission the right to force penalties against any fraudulent behavior.

I'm sorry this interview didn't take so long, but you did happen to answer some questions before they were asked. On a final note, you can be contacted if anyone has questions?

Yes, they could call my direct line or my e-mail address, both I have already provided.

Well, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Gwen Green may be contacted by calling 303-886-2951 or email at gwengreen@yahoo.com.