A 17-year-old girl choked back tears as she told lawmakers Wednesday about two men bringing her to a Maplewood home when she was 13 and sexually assaulting her — a case that’s prompted a bill for sweeping changes named “Hannah’s Law.” Hannah Traaseth says officials told her there would probably be a trial. “I really thought there was going to be and I was scared, but with my dad’s support and everybody else that was there, I was really ready to go and tell my story and try and get justice,” she said. “I was really ready, you know, and then they told me that it wasn’t gonna get prosecuted.”
Proposed legislation would eliminate the statute of limitations for sex-assault prosecution and make it easier to bring charges when a victim is intoxicated. Statutory rape laws concerning age differences between perpetrators and their victims would also be changed.