Florida's Supreme Court strikes down statue of limitations, allows abuse law suit 20 years later

In 1995 a woman identified as S.A.P. filed a lawsuit accussing the state of Florida of concealing details of how she was "beaten, burned choked and denied food" in 1979 at the age of 3 and 4. The judge threw it out under Florida's 4 year statue of limitations law (section 768.28(13)). S.A.P. appealed and the matter made its way to Florida's Supreme Court. On November 27, 2002, in a 5-2 decision, Florida's Supreme Court ruled that the "statute of limitations" could not stop a lawsuit against the state "when one of the allegations in the suit says the state concealed facts about the abuse and delayed the filing of the lawsuit." [Src: Naples Daily News 11/28/02 by Jackie Hallifax, AP]

Related articles:

1. 1973: Pinellas County States Attorney James T. Russell and County Sheriff Don Genung invite The Seed, Straight's progenator, to Pinellas County. Russell and 6th Circuit judges join The Seed's advisory board. story
2. 1978: The Dale Report confirms child abuse at Straight. State Attorney James T. Russell does absolutely nothing while state health officials bow to political pressure from the Sembler crowd, hide the abuse in its official report, and fires its chief investigator. link
3. 1978: Sixteen year old Jerry Vancil exposes child abuse at Straight to St. Pete Times but state investigation is dropped when Vancil dissapears. He has never been seen or heard from since (dead or alive) and the state has never bothered to look for him (or his body). link
4. Ray Waymire, acting chief of police for the city of St. Petersburg, Fl., was a founding Straight board member. link
5. 1987: HRS (state health department) received a complaint from a kid who escaped from Straight only to be brought back in handcuffs by a sheriff's deputy.
6. 1989: Clary Report--Florida state health officials (HRS) bow to political presure once again and allow abuse to continue. Straight Foundation secretary Donald Sullivan, MD resigns to run for state Senate and joins committee that would oversee any investigation of Straight while his wife Irene Sullivan joins Sixth Circuit and attends Betty Sembler's birthday party. link
7. States Attorney James T. Russell shows favortism to Sembler by failing to prosecute anyone in his clan over the Great Cooper's Point Land Scam while his former assistant state attorney Louis Kwall (whose former partner is now a 6th Circuit judge), who may have investigated the torture of Leigh Bright, et. al., but took no action if he did, becomes attorney for one of those involved in the land scandal; joins Sembler's powerful Republican Pary Machine; and his wife becomes the Sheriff's attorney. link
8. 1990s: A teenager who had escaped from Straight met with an HRS (Florida state health department) official to file a complaint against Straight. Instead the HRS official called the police who escorted the child back to Straight for further abuse.
9. The Governor, his wife, the Lieutenant Governor, the Mayor and everybody else joins the Advisory Board of Straight (now called DFAF). link
10. The Sixth Circuit and the cops collude with Straight. link
11. Operation PAR is a rehabilitation tool used extensively by Pinellas County's 6th Circuit. It appears that Operation PAR has become the new treatment arm of Straight (now DFAF). link
12. Florida's 6th Circuit gags Ray Bradbury to keep him from exposing its own involvement in Straight and The Seed. link
13. 1978: US Congressman C.W. "Bill" Young receives three out-of-state complaints against Straight and forwards them to James T. Russell. Russell investigates but does absolutley nothing and Young lets the ball drop. (St. Pete Times, 4/30/78, p. 15B) [Also see Young and Straight; Young and pork for Sembler's Treasure Island; Sembler tells Young to give Itlalians $10M of our money.]
14. How Phil Elberg overcame the statue of limitations in the Lulu Corter case. link
15. RICO and how attorney Wendall Turley overcame the statue of limitations to sue the Hare Krishna church for abusing its children 25 years ago. link
16. Suicide or Murder? (Straight and 40+ suicides) link
17. Over 40 suicides: Florida jury convicts mother of child abuse resulting in suicide after judge allows a psychological autopsy to determine state of mind of deceased teenager (e.g. whether actions taken by mother drove girl to suicide). story

Claims Bill. Beyond suing for recompensation, there is another possible avenue of relief. That's a claims bill. Let's say the U.S. government did wrong by knowingly exposing thousands of our soldiers to the plant defoliator Agent Orange. The US Congress can pass a special bill to give a monetary award to those who had been put in harms way. Could the Florida legislature be educated to the problem that Florida state officials colluded with Straight, looked the other way, failed to prosecute, backed down to political pressure from Mel Sembler? Could the legislature be humbled into doing the right thing and make amends for what Florida state officials allowed to happen to thousands of kids by authorizing a special claims bill to reimburse them for the harm state officials caused by their reckless failure to do their jobs. link

If David Miscaviage can go to his deposition as Admiral Farragut, then Keith Henson can go as Bozo the Clown.