SLO County DA’s Office calls on community to support legislation to extend statute of limitations on sexual assault crimes

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney's Office held an event Monday morning to support crime victims' rights.

The annual gathering took place at the San Luis Obispo Veterans Memorial Building and included representatives from local government, law enforcement, community advocacy groups and members of the public.

"Today's event was to emphasize survivor voices, survivors of crime and their voices, to elevate their voices, to encourage them and also a call to action, to engage in our community to make change that will be positive for survivors of crime in our community," said District Attorney Dan Dow.

Dow noted that the rights of victims sometimes are overlooked by lawmakers and others in the criminal justice system.

"Since 2011, our state has been focused on prison populations and reducing populations, and so they've been working on the criminal justice system to reform it, and all the while, not realizing that these changes have an affect on the victims of crime," said Dow. "Victims are frustrated when they see their offender out in the community long before they served their entire sentence, and so when we reform our system, we've got to keep victims at the forefront and make sure that they're just as important when we consider a change to the law as the criminal offender."

Dow added that the District Attorney's Office now refers to criminal justice system as the "criminal and victim justice system."

"If we change the name of the system that we refer to, as the criminal and victim justice system, we can help make sure victims are not forgotten," said Dow.

Dow called San Luis Obispo County, "a safe and wonderful community," but added crime of all kinds still exists here.

"Our office is committed to continually working hard in court representing those that don't have voice, that can't represent themselves in criminal court, and ensuring that every victim is considered and made a priority in our community," said Dow.

The county's Christopher G. Money Victim Witness Assistance Center, which provides a wide variety of services to victims of crime and their families supported more than 13,500 victims in 2022.

A key point of emphasis for the event was to call the community to action to help support two bills in the State Legislature that will change the statute of limitations for felony domestic violence and sexual assault crimes.

"We have a really important idea and that is to eliminate the statute of limitations for felony sex crimes," said Dow. "Seven states in our country already have no limitation on charging those as felony crimes. We want California to be the eighth state, to say, there should be no limit, no time limit on a victim of rape, or a victim of child sexual assault, to be able to have the criminal and victim justice system come and support them."

To help rally support for the bills, the District Attorney's Office has created a website where members of the public can ask local elected officials, State Senator John Laird and Assemblymember Dawn Addis, to back the proposed legislation.

"We are hoping that people will go onto the DA's website," said Brittany Barber, a crime victim, who now serves as a victim advocate. "They've created a QR code where you can fill out a form to support that abolishment of the statute of limitations on felony sex crimes in California. There are seven other states that have already gotten rid of the statutes on felony sex crimes and California needs to be one of them."

Monday's event was held prior to the official start of National Crime Victims' Rights Week, which will be held April 23-29.

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