The least controversial of three proposed sex abuse bills, HB 1088 passed the House in February. If it passes the Senate, it must be reconciled with the House version.

Starting July 1, when the bill would take effect, it would eliminate the 10-year statute of limitations for prosecuting felony sex abuse crimes against children, including crimes that date back to July 1, 1996.

Sen. Jim Dyer, R-Centennial, said the intentions of HB 1088 are good but its application could unfairly target innocent people because evidence is virtually impossible to maintain years after the event.

"My guess is that if no evidence is left, it will depend on what people say in court. And that's dangerous 20, 30 years after the event," Dyer said. His was the only audible "no" vote in a loud chorus of "ayes."

Sandoval said she was confident that prosecutors wouldn't pursue an allegation if they didn't think they had a solid case against the perpetrator.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Archbishop Charles Chaput renewed his call to defeat sex abuse bill SB 143. In a column in the Denver Catholic Register, he said it exists "for one reason only: to target the Catholic community."

Chaput also included HB 1090 in his warning but said it was still possible to amend that bill, which is scheduled to be debated in a hearing Monday.

Chaput and the Colorado Catholic Conference, the church's lobbying arm, are opposed to the two bills because they would lift the statute of limitations for civil claims. That would allow victims of childhood sex abuse to seek massive monetary damages against alleged perpetrators and also against the institutions which employed them.

Catholic leaders are singling out SB 143 as being "unfixable" because its centerpiece provision is a two- year window during which adult plaintiffs could sue for past childhood sex abuse no matter how long ago it occurred.

HB 1090, meanwhile, would remove the statute of limitations for civil claims starting July 1, when the bill would take effect, and for crimes that date back to July 1, 1996. In his column, Chaput praised Sandoval's HB 1088, which addresses crimes, not civil lawsuits, as a bill "reasonable people can support." He also thanked "the hundreds of Catholics" who let lawmakers know their concerns about the sex abuse bills.

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