Democrats revive effort to ask Colorado voters to let past victims of child sex abuse sue their abusers

A group of Democrats in the Colorado legislature is again attempting to ask voters to allow victims of childhood sexual abuse in decades past to sue their alleged abusers.

A similar effort was blocked by Republicans at the Capitol last year.

This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at kunc.org.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 2 would ask voters to amend the Colorado Constitution to let victims for whom the statute of limitations has expired file lawsuits.

“Today is another day that reflects years of struggle and heartbreak, a day that exists because this legislature has yet to fully answer the call of survivors who have shared their pain with us time and time again,” said Sen. Jessie Danielson of Wheat Ridge, who is leading the effort. “Predators thrive in environments that allow their behavior to go unchecked.”

Danielson was one of the lawmakers behind a bipartisan law that removed statute of limitations from childhood sexual abuse cases in 2022, but that didn’t lift limits from cases that had already run out of time by then.

The statute of limitations used to give child sex abuse survivors in Colorado six years after they turned 18 to file legal action. Most child sex abuse survivors wait decades before revealing their abuse.

Another piece of legislation passed by the legislature in 2022 tried to open a three-year window for victims to sue over cases dating back to the 1960s. But the measure was overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court on the basis that it violated rules in the state constitution against passing retroactive laws.

Danielson first tried to put a measure changing the constitution on the ballot last year, but it failed to get the two-thirds majority support in the Senate needed. The 2024 resolution needed a single Senate Republican to support it along with all the chamber’s Democrats, but the Republican caucus united against it.

This year, Danielson and co-sponsors Sen. Dafna Michaelson of Commerce City and House Majority Leader Monica Duran of Wheat Ridge brought back the same resolution. It cleared its first committee hearing Tuesday with a party-line vote.

Angie Witt is a childhood sexual abuse victim who has been working with lawmakers on the issue for the past few years. She says she was sexually assaulted by her pastor when she was 7 years old but hasn’t been able to sue because the abuse happened decades ago and the statute of limitations expired before 2022.

Witt didn’t expect last year’s resolution to fail.

“I think what’s not realized by those who voted against the measure is that there are life consequences for survivors of childhood sexual abuse,” she said ahead of this week’s hearing. “It’s not understood the impact to those of us who are survivors. This is something that impacts every single aspect of life.”

The next step for this year’s resolution is the full Senate chamber, where it failed last year. Assuming every Democrat in the Senate backs the resolution again, the measure will fail if no Republican supports it.

If the Senate, and then the House, ultimately approve the measure, it will be on the ballot in 2026.

Only then could lawmakers introduce legislation to open a retroactive window for child sexual abuse victims.

If that doesn’t happen and the measure fails, Danielson said supporters of the effort will turn to the public, by collecting signatures and trying to get a citizen-initiated measure on the ballot instead.

Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.

This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.