Panel changes bill calling for child abuse reports

Friday, April 30, 1999 | 12:27 p.m.

The Senate Judiciary Committee decided Thursday that people who notify authorities when they suspect a child is a victim of sexual abuse or violence can't be sued if their suspicions are found incorrect.

The panel also decided to exempt family members from the crime reporting requirement.

Lucille Lusk, a lobbyist for Nevada Concerned Citizens, had asked that families be freed from having to report violence against children because of concern their own lives could be jeopardized.

Judiciary Chairman Mark James, R-Las Vegas, said he and other members thought it was necessary to give "good faith immunity" from lawsuits so people will be encouraged to help stop the victimization of children.

"If you act in good faith and make a mistake, you shouldn't be sued for being a good Samaritan," James said.

The amendments were adopted to AB267, the proposal by Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins that requires adults to notify authorities when they suspect a child age 12 and under is being hurt. They must report their suspicions within 24 hours, or they could be charged with misdemeanor offenses, punishable by six months in jail.

The bill was caused by the reported unwillingness of David Cash, now a student at the University of California, Berkeley, to do anything when he witnessed 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson being brutalized in a bathroom stall at the Primm Valley hotel in May 1997.

His friend, Jeremy Strohmeyer, raped and killed Sherrice. He receive a life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after a plea agreement last year.

But Cash could not be charged with any crime under current Nevada law. Perkins, D-Henderson, says the girl might be alive today if Cash simply had gone to authorities.