The House and Senate unanimously did away with the statute of limitations on sexual crimes against children between the ages of 12 and 15 today, sending the bill to Gov. Charlie Crist for signature.
Palm Beach Gardens attorney Michael Dolce, who was repeatedly raped by his Maryland neighbor at the age of seven, has tried for six years to get the measure passed but the Catholic Church has thwarted his efforts.
Senate bill sponsor Dave Aronberg introduced Dolce, who watched from the public gallery and received a thank-you from Sen. Mike Fasano, who was acting as president of the chamber.
“Michael, on behalf of the Florida Senate, thank you for your good work, my friend, thank you,” Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said.
Florida’s current laws gave children between the ages of 12 and 16 three years to file criminal charges although studies show that it is often 15 years before victims go public with their accusations.
“Overwhelming. Very, very grateful that we finally said to these monsters time will never protect them. The law will protect our kids first,” said Dolce, who launched a citizen’s initiative called “Protect Our Kids First” to amend the constitution to remove the statute of limitations because the legislature failed to change the law.
Also looking on were influential lobbyist Ron Book and his daugher, Lauren Book-Lim, whose nanny sexually molested her from the age of 11.
“This is a huge deal. It’s just incredible. We’re so excited,” Book-Lim said.
Up to 70 percent of child molesters walk free because of the time restriction that keeps their victims from pressing charges, said Aronberg.
“This bill is a long time coming. Because there is no statute of limitations for the pain of victims. There is no statute of limitations for the shame and humiliation,” said Aronberg, D-Greenacres.
The Senate approved the bill with 34-0 vote; the House passed it earlier today by a 114-0 vote.
Crist has indicated that he would sign the bill into law.
UPDATE: The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee unanimously approved (SB 902) a tougher measure than the House’s version.
The Florida House approved a measure that would allow counties and cities to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.
Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.
The House approved the bill (HB 1301) – one of Palm Beach County’s top priorities this session – by a 111-1 vote today, but the Senate is taking a different approach.
Both anti-corruption proposals are being blended with a measure (SB 902) that would increase the legislature’s oversight over state agencies’ contracting, a priority for powerful Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, chairman of the committee.
One of the harsher measures would make it a crime for any public official to knowingly withhold information about a financial interest in something on they vote or cause to take place. It would would also require disclosure of financial interests that could benefit a family member.
Another would enhance penalties for crimes, such as official misconduct, that public officials commit in their official capacity.
The two stricter measures are sponsored by Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in corruption cases. The PBC-backed proposal is sponsored by Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. The two colleagues are running against each other in a Democratic primary for attorney general.
McAuliffe said the changes in the law would make it possible for the state rather than federal officials to prosecute officials like the three former Palm Beach County commissioners and two city commissioners who went to prison on federal corruption charges.
Palm Beach County officials said those bills aren’t a priority and aren’t working to make sure those bills (SB 1076, 734) pass.
An effort to do away with the statute of limitations on child sex molestation cases for crimes against children between the ages of 12 and 16 is headed to the Senate floor after some tense negotiations this morning.
Michael Dolce, a Royal Palm Beach lawyer who was sexually abused by a neighbor in his home state of Maryland when he was seven years old, has tried for six years to get the measure passed.
This year Dolce has powerful lobbyist Ron Book on his side. Book’s daughter Lauren was sexually molested by her nanny. Lauren Book-Lim is walking across the state to raise awareness and support for the issue and is expected to reach the Capitol tomorrow.
Sen. Alex Villalobos, a former prosecutor and Catholic, asked a series of questions showing his opposition to the measure because of the difficulty those accused of the crimes would have defending themselves after decades pass.
Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Committee Chairman Victor Crist recessed the committee to allow both sides to negotiate on setting a number of years instead of doing away with the time limits completely, sensing bill (SB 870) sponsor Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, may not have had the votes to pass it.
A heated discussion took place in the anteroom outside the committee.
“I don’t want a number. We’re past the time for numbers,” an irate Book told the bill’s opponents, saying he reached out to them two weeks ago but has had no response. “Two weeks have now passed. Nobody’s called me. No smoke signals. No carrier pigeons. No e-mails. Nothing.”
Dolce gave a hurried testimony as the clock ticked down on the meeting’s end.
“I simply ask for your support today. No child should have to walk in these shoes,” he concluded.
With less than two minutes left before the meeting’s end, the committee passed the bill 3-1, with Villalobos, R-Miami, voting against it.
The House version is also ready to be voted on by the full chamber.
A decades-old scandal in which a Wisconsin priest is accused of molesting more than 200 deaf boys could be the saving grace for a proposed change to Florida law that the Catholic Church has fought for six years and is still fighting.
State law gives victims of certain sex offenses, including “non-forcible rape” of children age 12 and older, until they are 21 to press charges. Lawsuits must be filed before the victim reaches age 26.
Under Florida law, Wisconsin priest Lawrence C. Murphy, who died in 1999 after admitting he abused boys in his care at a school for the deaf and blind, could not be charged with the crimes if he were still alive and neither could the religious institution that allowed the molestation to continue.
For the first time in six years, proposals in the House and Senate that would do away with the statutes of limitations have a chance of passing.
The measure has drawn the attention of Marc Klaas, the father of Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old California girl who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1993.
Klaas wrote to senators asking them to support SB 870, HB 525 so that victims of the horrific crimes can get justice.
“I understand that the Catholic Church has been one of the primary opponents to this legislation over the years. The fact that the Catholic Church is embroiled in yet another pedophile Priest sex scandal that reaches into the Vatican itself should diminish the power of their opposition as well as explain their virulent opposition to SB 870/HB 525,” Klaas wrote in an e-mail.
Oil and gas rigs could drill 105 miles closer to Florida beaches under a plan President Obama said today would strengthen national security and boost the depressed economy.
“In order to sustain economic growth, produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we’re going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy,” Obama said at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
The news stunned environmentalists in Florida and emboldened some Republican lawmakers, who pushed a measure last year to let the governor and state Cabinet approve oil and gas leases as close as three miles from Florida’s beaches.
Sen. Dan Gelber, a Democrat running for attorney general, sparked a mini-debate on the national health care package after he accused Attorney General Bill McCollum of political gamesmanship by filing a federal lawsuit over the reforms.
Gelber filed an amendment on an attorney general-related bill that would bar the AG from hiring private lawyers to challenge the constitutionality of the federal health reform act.
In what sounded a lot like a campaign speech of his own, Gelber accused McCollum, a Republican running for governor, of using his office to launch a headline-grabbing “ideological escapade” and “political frolic” to boost his popularity.
“This is nothing other than a political fraud,” Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said. “Yes, the the attorney general may have been the first one (to file the lawsuit). But he had a press conference every single day on this. It was nothing but a political issue…
The question we should ask ourselves is why is the attorney general…on this political frolic whose only purpose is to simply get headlines? It is wrong.”
McCollum is simply trying to “defend us from a mandate that has never before in the history of our country been done wherein we have to purchase insurance and if we don’t we have some kind of statutory violation,” said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the bill (SB 712) sponsor.
Thrasher said that if the attorney general stops defending the rights of Floridians, “then we ought to get a new one.”
“I share your view that we ought to get rid of the current attorney general if that’s what you just said,” Gelber quipped.
Gelber’s amendment failed, but the state senator-attorney general candidate debate didn’t stop there. (more…)
The changes that would allow counties to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.
Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.
The House Public Safety and Domestic Security Policy Committee unanimously approved Rep. Kevin Rader’s bill (HB 1301) today.
Rader, D-Delray Beach, and fellow Palm Beacher Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, sponsored the proposals at the request of Palm Beach County officials.
A $1,000 fine may not seem like much of a price to pay for politicos who’ve been convicted of taken thousands of dollars in bribes, steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to their buddies or voting on multi-million dollar deals in which they have a financial stake.
But, Rader said, the fine “and a year in jail is a step in the right direction.”
Palm Beach County recently established an ethics panel in an effort to shed its “Corruption County” image. In the past four years, three former county commissioners and two West Palm Beach city commissioners were sent to prison on corruption charges.
Michael Dolce’s impassioned but barely audible appeal to lawmakers today reaped a preliminary success for the 40-year-old West Palm Beach lawyer.
Dolce’s tried but failed for years to get the legislature to do away with the statute of limitations in cases where a child under the age of 16 was sexually molested. The former legislative aide has a personal interest in seeing the law passed, one that he shared with a spellbound Senate Criminal Justice Committee this afternoon struggling to hear the soft-spoken Dolce’s testimony.
Dolce, an attorney, prayed silently before telling the committee that he was repeatedly raped as a 7-year-old child by a neighbor in his home state of Maryland. When he was finally able to talk about the vicious crime, the statute of limitations had passed and he was unable to press charges against his molestor.
Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat, is sponsoring a bill again (SB 870) this year that would do away with Florida’s current law giving victims of certain sex offenses, including “non-forcible rape” of children age 12 and older, until they are 21 to press charges. Lawsuits must be filed before the victim reaches age 26.
Dolce told the committee he still suffers after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical and psychological treatment while his molestor walks free.
“Today, he I am 40 years old. The pain does not go away,” he said.
The committee unanimously approved the measure which has two more stops before a full vote in the Senate. Its House companion has one committee vote left after three committees previously unanimously passed it.
Lawmakers have the power to repeal the statute of limitations by legislative grace, Dolce testified.
“I urge you to do it. I have faced Satan. He does not deserve legislative grace,” Dolce said.
Dolce launched a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to lift the statute of limitations on sex crimes in the event that the legislature again fails to act. He failed to gather the 700,000 signatures by February necessary to get the measure on this year’s ballot but is shooting for 2012.
With Palm Beach “Corruption” County in mind, lawmakers are moving toward stiffening local ordinances combating ethics violations.
Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, is backing a bill that allow counties to increase the current penalties for violations of county ordinances imposing ethical standards and financial disclosure requirements from 60 days in jail to one year in jail and double the fine from $500 to $1,000 per occurance.
The Senate Community Affairs Committee signed off on Aronberg’s proposal (SB 1980) this afternoon with a 9-1 vote.
Aronberg sponsored the bill at the behest of the scandal-plagued Palm Beach County Commission, which recently established an ethics panel in the wake of a federal corruption probe that landed three former county commissioners in prison. Palm Beach County Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Boynton Beach, is the House bill (HB 1301) sponsor.
Aronberg said the measure, which would apply to all counties if it becomes law, puts teeth into local ordinances.
“Living in Palm Beach County, I’m well aware this has become a priority for the voters in my district,” Aronberg, who is running in a statewide Democratic primary for attorney general against Senate colleague Dan Gelber. “Hopefully, this will help remove our reputation as ‘Corruption County.’”
Recognizing Palm Beach County day today, PBC home-boy Sen. Dave Aronberg recited some facts about the state’s largest county before giving a shout-out to some county officials watching the Senate session from the East Gallery.
Aronberg, D-Greenacres, introduced PBC Commissioner Burt Aaronson as “The Godfather of Palm Beach County.”
Aaronson was first elected to the commission in 1992.
Aronberg’s intro may be considered a dubious distinction, considering that three of Aaronson’s former county commission colleagues are in prison for corruption charges.
With a slew of lawmakers, including Senate President Jeff Atwater, running for higher office this year, Senate Rules Chairman Alex Villalobos delivered a stern warning to members about using staff for campaign purposes.
Villalobos, who would have been in Atwater’s presidential shoes were it not for a coup staged by Atwater and his backers more than two years ago, sent a memo to the Senate’s 40 members outlining what their aides can – and mostly cannot – while on the clock.
Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, is leaving office early to run statewide for chief financial officer. Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, forced out because of term limits, is running for Congress, along with Democratic state Sens. Frederica Wilson of Miami, Charlie Justice of St. Petersburg and Palm Beach County’s own Ted Deutch of Boca Raton. Senate Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, is also expected to run for Congress.
And Sens. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Dan Gelber of Miami Beach are running statewide in a Democratic primary for attorney general.
Senate staff can’t use annual leave or comp time to work on campaigns, nor can they work on a campaign during their lunch hour, Villalobos wrote.
They can volunteer after hours, that means outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
But aides can’t take a paying job with a campaign unless they get permission from Atwater and take leave-without-pay first.
“A Senator who uses staff paid by the Senate to work on his or her campaign while ‘on duty’ may be liable for theft,” Villalobos wrote. If the employee earned more than $5,000 or more as a state worker, the crime is a felony.
And the staffer who works on the campaign could also be liable for theft.
Oh, and no using state equipment like telephones or computers for campaign stuff. That’s a misdemeanor.
Sen. Dave Aronberg is questioning the state’s emergency readiness given the recent ouster of emergency management chief Ruben Almaguer.
Senate Military Affairs and Domestic Security Committee Chairman Aronberg, D-Greenacres, sent Almaguer’s replacement David Halstead a bevy of questions this morning about Florida’s ability to respond to a terrorist threat like the recently thwarted Christmas Day bomber airplane attack in Michigan.
Gov. Charlie Crist forced Almaguer to resign from his position as interim director of the Division of Emergency Management last week amid accusations of nepotism, misspending and sexism.
Almaguer, brought in as deputy chief to former DEM head Craig Fugate by Gov. Jeb Bush, last Monday refused to step down then resigned after meeting with Crist’s chief of staff Shane Strum and deputy chief Kathy Mears.
Almaguer says he was forced out by his replacement, Halstead, and that he has a “clean conscience.”
Crist refused to look into Almaguer’s alleged wrongdoing despite a plea from the ousted department official for an investigation.
Among the questions Aronberg wants answered:
Who’s responsible for audits of the division, which is located under the Department of Community Affairs?
State Sen. Dan Gelber and attorney general candidate nailed down another big-name Democratic endorsement, this time from Buddy McKay, who served as lieutenant governor under the late Gov. Lawton Chiles and briefly served as governor after Chiles’ death.
Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and former House member, is trying to trade up for the Cabinet post just a year after he won election to the Senate.
He and colleague Dave Aronberg, a Democratic senator from Greenacres, are in a battle-of-the-endorsements.
Post On Politics had erroneously reported that the sheriffs were split on the candidates.
They are not.
Aronberg has the support of 10 Democratic sheriffs, including Palm Beach County’s own law enforcement rock star Ric Bradshaw.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, former state education commissioner Betty Castor and former U.S. Rep. Jim Davis have all thrown their support behind Gelber.
Republicans have lined up Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and Holly Benson, a former House member who also served as secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, in a GOP primary race that’s been virtually silent compared to the Aronberg/Gelber contest.
They’re all vying to replace Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican who is running for governor in a primary against another senator – Paula Dockery.
Gelber’s latest political aspiration has opened up the door for yet another former senator, Gwen Margolis, to return to the chamber.
Margolis, a former Senate President, left office before being termed out to make room for Gelber. If she wins, it would be the Miami Beach-area Democrat’s second return trip to the Senate. After serving in the state House, she switched to the Senate from 1981-1992 before making a losing bid for Congress. Margolis was reelected to the Senate in 2002.
State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, is in Tallahassee for the first time since lawmakers were called to the Capitol for a special session on rail issues. Aronberg was excused last week for a previously-scheduled public meeting in Glades County. He asked for Monday off because of “events in the district that I need to attend.”
Included on his calendar yesterday: A fundraiser for his Attorney General campaign.
The endorsement is from the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades (IUPAT), which claims 5,000 members in Florida.
State Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres is competing against fellow Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach for the Democratic nomination in the attorney general race.
One of the biggest laugh lines at Saturday night’s annual fund-raising dinner for the Palm Beach Democratic Party turned out to be this:
“It is a true honor to be one of your keynote speakers tonight.”
State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, delivered the line, then paused knowingly, drawing laughter from the audience of about 350 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
Equality Florida threw its support to Sen. Dan Gelber in the Democratic attorney general primary — Florida’s largest LGBT was the first statewide group to weigh in the race. Their press release is here.
Meanwhile, Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres added Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson to the list of law enforcement officials back him. The Dobson’s presser is here.
Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson resigned from her post this morning, the day after meeting with Gov. Charlie Crist who appointed her to the post in Feb. 2008.
“I had a meeting with the Governor the other day to talk about some opportunities that lie ahead, and I regret that because of those opportunities I will no longer be able to serve as your Secretary,” Benson wrote in an e-mail to AHCA workers this morning.
Benson, a former state representative from the Panhandle, is expected to jump into the attorney general’s race next month, according to sources close to the Pensacola Republican. That could elevate interest in a GOP primary against Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, who’s already announced his candidacy to replace Bill McCollum. Democratic state Sens. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Dan Gelber of Miami Beach are already engaged in a heated battle for the state’s top law enforcement chief.
Crist tapped Benson, a bond lawyer, to head AHCA in 2008. Before that, she left her Pensacola House seat to head DBPR, again at Crist’s bidding.
In the House, Benson was the force behind a model Medicaid reform project that has had mixed results. (more…)
LAKE BUENA VISTA — Democratic attorney general candidates Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber traded a few elbows over school vouchers and campaign finance this morning but spent most of their time bashing Republicans during a debate before about 1,000 Democratic activists.
The first debate between the primary rivals saw Miami Beach state Sen. Gelber repeatedly stressing his eight-year record as a federal prosecutor while Greenacres Sen. Aronberg, 38, frequently invoked popular former Democratic Attorney General Bob Butterworth, for whom Aronberg worked in two stints between 1999 and 2002.
The debate’s most heated exchange came when Gelber accused Aronberg of supporting private school vouchers.
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