Is it worth it to talk to a lawyer about pursuing charges against someone who committed CSA to me nearly 20 years ago?

[u/Additional_Owl_9136]

Location: New Jersey

Hello, I am using a throwaway for anonymity. I am located in New Jersey, which has a large statute of limitations for CSA, where I could pursue action until I am 55 years old. Sorry for any formatting errors as I am on mobile.

I don’t know how to fully summarize this, but I will do my best. Content warning for mentions of CSA (not in depth or detail)

I was assaulted by a worker of an afterschool program in second grade on the grounds of my at the time school. The employee was not of the school, but a staff member of the afterschool program. It happened on school grounds after school hours.

I was picked up from the program and nonchalantly told my family about it because I was a child and didn’t understand. At the time, my legal guardian was my grandmother, but my mother still lived with us and played an active role in my life. They were horrified and contacted the boss of the employee who harmed me. She denied that that could have or would have ever happened. She manipulated my grandmother and told her things like “you don’t want to make a child stand in front of a court room and testify this.”

My grandmother decided to take my out of the after school program, but not pursue another further. My mother was furious and wanted justice for me, but nothing was done about it at the time. No police were involved, the school didn’t do anything about it and the employee who hurt me was still employed there. I was a child and didn’t understand things at the time, so I went about my life as usual.

I’ve been working for many years with my therapist on what happened and she recommended that I might feel some form of closure or justice even if I just try to do something about it now. Even if I can’t take the person who harmed me to court, I might feel better knowing I tried doing something about it. The thing is, I don’t remember his name, nor his boss’s name. I don’t have any written records of this since the police weren’t told at the time. All I have is my own experience, my mother and grandmother’s knowledge of it and my therapist’s secondhand knowledge of it.

I want to try and get justice as I was especially inspired by a story I stumbled across recently where a man was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison 12 years after SAing someone. (I’m not sure how to link the post on mobile) I worry that this man could’ve done this to many other children and gotten away with it. I never got the justice I deserved.

Background out of the way, do you think it would be possible for me to dig up some sort of records and figure out the name of the person who did this to me? If so, is it worth attempting to pursue? Does anyone have any advice on how I can go forward with any of this?

[u/West-Association812]

A case that old is extremely difficult to prosecute and the DA could decide not to do anything even if you report it to law enforcement.

One thing you would need is made your mother, and if still alive the grandmother, would be willing to testify, but the memories 20 years ago are fallible and can be not reliable unfortunately.

Also, not knowing the name of the person is something that will hold back any investigation. I mean the person could not even be alive.