Time runs out for suit claiming molestation

A civil suit alleging Coeur d’Alene businessman James Deffenbaugh molested his adoptive daughters was dismissed Wednesday after 1st District Judge John Patrick Luster ruled the statute of limitations had expired.

The daughters, now grown, filed suit in October 2005 saying Deffenbaugh had repeatedly molested them as children in the late 1970s. Deffenbaugh is the executive director of the nonprofit Panhandle Area Council, a local economic development agency.

He wasn’t in court Wednesday, and his attorneys declined to comment on the judge’s ruling. Monica Flood Brennan, attorney for the plaintiffs, also declined to comment.

Luster said the statute of limitations to bring a civil suit against Deffenbaugh was two years and had run out more than 20 years before the suit was filed.

Though the Idaho Legislature recently lifted the statute of limitations in some sex crimes against children, Luster said the changes couldn’t be applied in the suit against Deffenbaugh because it was brought forth as a civil matter.

Veronica Glaze and Viola Ralston, Deffenbaugh’s adoptive daughters, alleged that he sneaked into their bedrooms at night and molested them on several occasions. The suit said the acts began in 1975 while the family lived in California and continued after they moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1978.

The women alleged that Deffenbaugh admitted to the molestations during a telephone conversation with them and other family members in November 2003.

The suit sought more than $10,000 for post-traumatic stress disorder and punitive damages of more than $500,000 for each woman.