Colorado victims of childhood sex abuse, blocked by state Supreme Court, hold out hope for future chance at justice

Colorado Supreme Court Blocks Lawsuits for Sexual Abuse Survivors

One afternoon last month, Miranda and Jennifer Wetzler answered a call from their attorney in shock: The Colorado Supreme Court had blocked the sisters’ chance to right a decades-old wrong after their alleged abuser had walked free more than 30 years earlier.

“When I heard the news, I started crying and I just thought, ‘Not again,’” Miranda Wetzler said. “I thought maybe this time we could get the justice we deserved.”

Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act

Colorado’s Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act, which took effect Jan.1, 2022, provided a three-year window for adults who were sexually assaulted as children to bring forward lawsuits over abuse they allege happened between 1960 and 2022, even if the statute of limitations for criminal charges had long since expired.

Court Ruling and Impact

The Wetzler sisters were preparing to file a lawsuit under the act when a unanimous decision by the state’s high court on June 20 struck down the law as a violation of the Colorado Constitution’s prohibition on retrospective legislation.

The court’s ruling has effectively blocked all of the lawsuits filed by sexual abuse survivors under the act over the last year and a half, though state court officials said they weren’t able to calculate exactly how many cases were brought under the Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act.

Impact on Survivors

Advocates say it’s a blow for victims who’d been given a glimmer of hope through the new legislation, and one of the bill’s sponsors told The Denver Post she’s looking into the possibility of drafting a constitutional amendment to keep the matter alive.

Casey Ballinger, a spokesperson and advocate for the Blue Bench, a sexual assault prevention and survivor support center in Denver, said survivors already had faced significant difficulties receiving accountability through the legal system.

“So to have something be implemented, to have survivors feel like there’s an opportunity to come forward and receive accountability through the civil legal system, and then to have that taken away, it sends the message that systems don’t care about their experiences or the harm that’s been caused,” Ballinger said.

Background: The Wetzler Sisters’ Story

The Wetzler family originally pursued criminal charges in 1989 against the girls’ alleged abuser, Theatine priest Bart Nadal of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver and then-pastor at Fort Collins’ Holy Family Church, which the family attended.

The sisters were 7 and 8 years old at the time of the allegations.

Challenges Faced by the Wetzler Sisters

After the family pressed charges, harassment from the congregation and the town was so bad that Miranda and her sister, Jennifer, had a police escort to and from school until their parents eventually pulled them out, Miranda Wetzler said.

“We had to go stay with my brother because my parents were getting threatening phone calls asking if they knew where their daughters were and being told that they were going to be hurt,” she said.

A jury found Nadal not guilty after deliberating for just 10 minutes, Miranda Wetzler said. Decades later, the sisters thought the state’s new Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act would allow them a second chance at seeking justice — this time in a civil court.

“When the law passed, I didn’t know if I wanted to pursue a lawsuit or not,” Miranda Wetzler said. “I have a family now, and knowing what happened back in the ’80s, I was fearful. But as I was thinking about it and time passed, I thought to myself, ‘Why should we hide who we are? Why should we not be able to tell our story?’”

Nadal died in 2015, but the sisters planned to sue the Archdiocese of Denver and the Theatine Religious Order for physical and mental damages, if they weren’t able to come to a pre-lawsuit settlement.

Jennifer Wetzler said the new law was scary, but exciting.

“As all these cases were coming out, I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t lie. This isn’t something that I made up in my mind as a child,’” she said. “I’m not the only one going through this.”

The Wetzlers reached out to Jessica Arbour at Horowitz Law, knowing the firm had experience representing survivors of sexual abuse.

“You can understand, after everything they’ve gone through, that when this civil option is put on the table, there’s a lot of hesitancy to go through all of that again,” Arbour said. “Thirty years later, people have a different understanding of clergy sex abuse, things are different today. So they call me, they get themselves mentally ready to move forward with the lawsuit and then there’s a giant roadblock in the way.”

Arbour represents nearly a dozen claimants against various Catholic dioceses, religious orders and school districts who have now been shut out of the courts by the state Supreme Court’s June decision

“Their story is just heartbreaking and frustrating, especially now that we know that the lawmakers were given advice that the

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 5: Gender Equality
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
• SDG 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.
• SDG 16.3: Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Number of lawsuits filed under the Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act
• Number of sexual abuse survivors seeking justice through the legal system
• Number of cases blocked or dismissed due to legal challenges
• Number of survivors who feel supported and heard by the legal system

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: denverpost.com

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