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Nevada generally requires prosecutors to initiate charges within 20 years of a alleged sexual assault. Under NRS 171.083, a report of a sexual assault is timely if it is filed with the district attorney within the applicable period of time for such offense and the report contains the information required by this section.
DNA evidence, allegations of sexual abuse of a child, and the applicable law at the time of the alleged offense may also extend the time for charging a sexual assault.
NRS 171.085(2) measures the ordinary filing period from the date of the alleged offense. An indictment must be found or a criminal information or complaint filed within that period. The date charges were brought can therefore matter more than the date of arrest or trial. The 20-year rule applies to the offense defined in NRS 200.366, Nevada’s sexual assault statute. Other sex offenses and civil lawsuits can have different deadlines.
The victim or person acting on the victim’s behalf may file a written report of the sexual assault with a law enforcement officer, including local police officers, sheriffs, and their deputies, as well as prosecuting attorneys, before the end of the period in which a filing is required. The officer receiving the written report must provide a copy of the report to the victim or person acting on the victim’s behalf. NRS 171.083.
Who made the report, what it documented, and when it was filed can all matter. In Ramos v. State, the Nevada Supreme Court held that the requirement was satisfied where people who found the victim’s body notified police and law enforcement filed a timely written report detailing the sexual assault.
If no qualifying report was filed, NRS 171.083 also excludes time when the victim was under a disability defined by the statute, such as mental incompetence or a medically comatose state.
NRS 171.082 removes the filing deadline when genetic testing of a biological sample yields a DNA profile that establishes the accused person’s identity. Separately, NRS 171.080 allows prosecution at any time after the death of the person killed when the sexual assault arises from the same facts and circumstances as a murder.
For offenses that constitute sexual abuse of a child under Nevada law, NRS 171.095(1)(b) sets two age-based deadlines, subject to exceptions.
A separate rule in NRS 171.095(1)(a) can start the clock at discovery if the offense was committed in a secret manner. A delay in reporting by itself does not establish that the offense was committed in secret. Both rules can matter when calculating the filing deadline for the same charge.
Nevada raised the general limit from four years to 20 on October 1, 2015. The DNA exception took effect on July 1, 2019. Each change also applies to earlier offenses when the applicable period had already begun and was still open on the respective effective date. The childhood-abuse deadlines also changed in 2013.
For an older allegation, the offense dates must first be compared to the charging documents, any written report, and any evidence supporting an exception. If the deadline had expired before the charge was filed, the defense may be able to raise that issue in court. Even if the charge was timely, the missing messages, the unavailable witnesses, and the faded memories of the witnesses can make it difficult to determine the facts in an older allegation.
See our Las Vegas sexual assault defense guide for more on investigations and evidence.
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