Victims Angered and Upset by Ruling Freeing Molesters
By JOHN M. BRODER
LOS ANGELES, July 12 — George Neville Rucker, an 82-year-old former Roman Catholic priest, was on a two-month cruise off the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, when, the authorities said, his past finally caught up with him.
Alaska state troopers arrested him, harnessed him on a tug boat and returned him to Los Angeles, where he faced charges of molesting 12 girls over 30 years, starting a year after he was ordained as a priest in 1946. If convicted, he faced a possible prison sentence of 26 years.
But this week, before any evidence was presented to a jury, Mr. Rucker walked out of court a free man.
He is among perhaps hundreds of people in California who are being freed from trial or jail as a result of a United States Supreme Court ruling on June 26 overturning a 1993 California law that allowed charges against child molesters protected by a previous deadline on prosecutions.
State officials said the decision affected as many as 800 people accused of sexual offenses or already convicted.
The ruling and the release of the offenders has infuriated victims and frustrated prosecutors.
Do you agree with the USSC courts ruling? Or is it your opinion that the supreme court dropped the ball?
Complete article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/national/13ABUS.html?th
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