When survivors call us, they often use the phrase "press charges." It is worth untangling, because it points at a decision most people do not realize they are facing.
There are two entirely separate legal systems that can respond to clergy abuse. They have different deadlines, different standards of proof, different outcomes, and — the part that surprises people most — different people in control. Understanding which one you are asking about is the first real step.
The Short Version
- A criminal case is brought by the State of Texas against a person. A prosecutor decides whether to file it. The survivor is the complaining witness, not a party. The outcome is punishment: prison, probation, sex offender registration, sometimes restitution.
- A civil case is brought by you, through your own lawyer, against the abuser and usually against the institution that enabled them. You decide whether to file, whether to settle, and when to stop. The outcome is money damages and, frequently, disclosure of what the institution knew.
They are not alternatives you must choose between. Both can proceed, and one does not bar the other.
Who Actually Decides
This is the difference that matters most emotionally, and survivors are rarely warned about it.
In a criminal case you do not "press charges." You make a report. A prosecutor then decides whether to bring a case based on the evidence, the applicable limitations period, and their assessment of provability. Survivors who report are sometimes told no case will be filed — and are left with the crushing and incorrect impression that they were not believed. A declination is a judgment about criminal provability at the highest standard of proof in American law. It is not a finding that the abuse did not occur.
In a civil case, the decision is yours. You are the plaintiff. Your lawyer works for you. You decide whether to file, whether to accept a settlement, whether to insist on terms about disclosure or an apology, and whether to walk away. For survivors who have spent a lifetime having decisions made about them, that control is often the most meaningful part of the process.
The Standard of Proof Is Not the Same
Criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Civil liability requires only a preponderance of the evidence — more likely than not.
That gap is why a case that a prosecutor declines can still succeed in civil court, and why a criminal acquittal does not end a civil claim. The two systems are answering different questions.
Texas Deadlines: Criminal
Texas law is unusually favorable to survivors here. Under Article 12.01 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, certain offenses against children carry no limitations period at all — an indictment may be presented at any time. Those include continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual (Penal Code § 21.02), indecency with a child (§ 21.11), and aggravated sexual assault under specified provisions.
Other offenses do carry deadlines. Sexual assault of an adult is generally subject to a ten-year period, subject to statutory exceptions, and injury to a child carries its own timeline running from the victim's eighteenth birthday. The categories are technical and the applicable version of the statute depends on when the offense occurred, so a prosecutor's office or a lawyer should confirm the analysis rather than a survivor guessing from a summary.
The practical takeaway is that decades-old childhood abuse in Texas is frequently still prosecutable. The Manuel La Rosa-Lopez case in Montgomery County is a concrete example: conduct from 1998–2001, charges filed in 2018, a guilty plea and a ten-year sentence in 2020.
Texas Deadlines: Civil
The civil side changed significantly in 2019. House Bill 3809, effective September 1, 2019, amended Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 16.0045 to extend the limitations period for certain childhood sexual abuse claims from 15 years to 30 years after the cause of action accrues. Because the period is tolled during minority, that generally means until roughly age 48 for abuse suffered as a child.
Three qualifications matter, and any honest summary has to include them:
- The extension was not retroactive. A claim already time-barred when the amendment took effect was not revived by it. Whether your claim was still alive on September 1, 2019 is a threshold question.
- Claims against institutions are analyzed separately. The 30-year period attaches to claims arising from the enumerated criminal conduct. Negligence claims against a church, school, or diocese are their own causes of action, and defendants routinely argue that a shorter period — the general two-year personal injury limitation — applies to them. This is actively litigated, and how a claim is pleaded can affect the answer.
- Tolling doctrines can change the picture. Fraudulent concealment and the discovery rule can affect when a claim accrued, particularly where an institution actively hid what it knew.
This is why we tell survivors not to self-diagnose the deadline. Our article on the 2019 changes to the Texas statute of limitations goes further, but the only reliable answer comes from someone applying the statute to your actual facts.
A Criminal Conviction Is Powerful Civil Evidence
If a prosecution has already happened, your civil case starts from higher ground. A guilty plea or conviction removes the threshold dispute that makes many civil cases difficult — whether the abuse occurred at all — and leaves the litigation focused on the institution's conduct and on damages.
Our article on the Gateway Church matter walks through that dynamic in a real Texas case, where a guilty plea in Oklahoma has civil implications in Texas.
Restitution ordered in a criminal case is also not the ceiling. It is calculated on a narrower basis than civil damages, and it does not account for pain and suffering, lost earning capacity, or punitive damages. A criminal court's restitution order does not settle your civil claim.
What Each Path Can and Cannot Deliver
A criminal case can put an abuser in prison, place them on a registry, and produce a public adjudication. It generally cannot reach the institution — organizations are rarely charged — and it will not compensate you for what the abuse cost you.
A civil case can reach the institution, force production of internal records through discovery, and compensate you for therapy, lost income, pain and suffering, and in appropriate cases punitive damages. It cannot imprison anyone.
For most survivors of institutional abuse, the civil path is the only one that reaches the organization that made the abuse possible. That is usually what they came for.
If You Are Considering Reporting to Police
A few practical notes. Talk to a civil lawyer first if you can — not to discourage a report, but so you understand how the two tracks interact, what becomes public, and how to protect your privacy. Understand that a prosecutor's decision not to file is not a verdict on your credibility. And keep in mind that if you are a mandatory reporter in Texas or the abuser may still have access to children, there may be reporting obligations or urgent safety reasons that point toward contacting law enforcement promptly.
Talk It Through Before You Choose
You do not have to decide between these paths today, and you do not have to decide alone. A consultation with us is free and confidential, and we will tell you honestly what each route can realistically do in your situation — including if the answer is that one of them cannot help you.
Contact us or call (713) 224-5529.
Related reading
- Clergy Abuse Statute of Limitations: What Survivors Need to Know in 2026
- Gateway Church Sexual Abuse Lawsuit: What Survivors Need to Know
- The Process of Filing a Lawsuit
Sources
- Texas Code of Criminal Procedure art. 12.01 — Felony limitation periods
- Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 16.0045 — Limitations period for claims arising from certain offenses
- Texas H.B. 3809 (86th Legislature, 2019) — bill text
- Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code ch. 16 — Limitations
This article is general legal information about Texas law, current as of September 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and outcomes turn on the specific facts of your case. Please speak with a lawyer about your own situation.