Former Boy Scout: Michigan law is keeping abuse victims from full payouts
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — An Ottawa County man who says he was sexually assaulted repeatedly by a Boy Scouts of America leader decades ago says Michigan’s statute of limitations is keeping him and hundreds of others in the state from collecting millions of dollars in damages.
Nicholas Fish, 38, is among more than 80,000 former Scouts nationwide who have filed claims against the Boy Scouts of America, alleging they were sexually abused as children. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office says it believes there may be more than 5,000 victims linked to the Boy Scouts across the state.
Fish says he was 9, a new Scout in northern Michigan, when his Scout master started sexually assaulting him.
“He would make me sleep in his tent, which was actually forbidden in the Boy Scouts policy,” he said.
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He said the sexual abuse happened repeatedly at Boy Scout camps across the country over four years. He said he reported it to others in the Scouts and to his church.
“It’s affected my whole life, from work, relationships, friendships,” he said.
Four years ago, he said, he filed a claim against the Boy Scouts of America.
There’s a lot at stake: A bankruptcy settlement last year created a $2.4 billion trust fund for survivors, who each can collect up to $2.7 million. But based on trust fund guidelines, victims who live in states with strict statutes of limitations, like Michigan, stand to get less money.
“It hurts victims who come forward later on in life, and the laws here in Michigan are archaic and are not written in the way for victims,” Fish said.
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Right now, survivors can file civil claims three years after realizing they were victimized or until their 28th birthday, whichever is later. Legislation proposed last year in the Michigan House would give them until they turn 52, or seven years after discovering they were a victim. That legislation has stalled.
Over the last year, at least three other states — Iowa, Ohio and Alabama — have taken steps to change statute of limitation laws just for Boy Scouts survivors.
“I don’t have to do this,” Fish said. “I don’t, but it’s not fair that in other states they are passing these legislations, creating these windows of opportunities for victims, and in our state, these bills have been sitting there for a year.”
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The deadline for finalizing sexual abuse claims is on Friday, though Fish’s attorney said he can get a one-year extension.
“We’re just asking Michigan to do their job and do that, too, for us victims, for the Boy Scouts,” Fish said.
State Rep. Julie Brixie, a Lansing-area Democrat, was among the lawmakers to propose the bills last spring, motivated by the survivors of the case of Michigan State University Dr. Larry Nassar. Nassar, a former sports doctor, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting dozens of children and young women.
“Here in Michigan, we have the absolute worst statute of limitations for criminal sexual conduct in the entire country,” Brixie said.
The bills also include a “revival window” that would give victims of sexual assault whose windows have expired for criminal charges two years to file civil suits.
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Brixie expects the full House to take up the legislation in a matter of weeks.
“All survivors of child sex abuse really need access to justice and no abuser should be protected by Michigan’s own laws,” she said. “Our laws harbor child sex abusers.”
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