UPDATE: HB
2603, officially naming Senate Bill 1041, "Aaron's Law", after my son Aaron Cruz will be heard before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, February
7, 2015, ten years after the passage of Senate Bill 1041, and 19 years after
Aaron and his brother and two sisters disappeared from Oregon in an
abduction/shunning organized and maintained by Mormons in three states: Oregon,
Washington and Utah. Aaron died from “undetermined causes” in Payson, Utah.
78th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2015 Regular Session
House Bill 2603
Sponsored
by Representative SMITH WARNER (Presession filed.)
SUMMARY
Provides
that ORS 30.868, regarding civil damages for custodial interference, shall be
known and may be cited as “Aaron’s Law.”
A BILL FOR AN ACT
Relating
to citation of ORS 30.868.
Whereas
during the 2005 regular session, the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly passed
Senate Bill 1041, sponsored by Senator Avel Gordly, which became chapter 841,
Oregon Laws 2005, and was codified as ORS 30.868; and
Whereas
with the enactment of Senate Bill 1041, Oregon became the first state in the
nation where abducting a child creates a civil cause of action; and
Whereas
Senate Bill 1041 is the culmination of the work of the 2004 Interim Task Force
on Parental and Family Abductions and of Senator Gordly’s chief of staff, Sean
Aaron Cruz; and
Whereas
Sean Aaron Cruz’s own four children disappeared from Oregon in 1996; and
Whereas
Sean Aaron Cruz’s eldest son, Aaron Cruz, died in Utah in April 2005 as a
consequence of the abduction, inspiring the Legislative Assembly to act on
Senate Bill 1041; and
Whereas
Senate Bill 1041 passed 26-3 in the Senate and 59-0 in the House of
Representatives and was signed into law by Governor Theodore R. Kulongoski on
September 2, 2005; and
Whereas
Senate Bill 1041 is referred to as “Aaron’s Law” by members of the legal
community, including presenters at the State Family Law Advisory Committee’s
Family Law Conference; and
Whereas
designating Senate Bill 1041 as “Aaron’s Law” is a fitting tribute to the
memory of Aaron Cruz, whose death was not in vain; now, therefore,
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
SECTION 1. ORS 30.868 shall be known and may be cited as
“Aaron’s Law.”
Golden
Gate Park, San Francisco
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