committee following the hearing. The following year a new bill, HB 642, was introduced and passed by the Maryland State Legislature. HB 642, the first bill of its kind to be supported by the Catholic Church in Maryland, extended the statute of limitations to 20 years after the age of majority, but makes it much more difficult to implicate a church or civic organization in a child sex abuse civil suit after the plaintiff turns 25. That bill was signed into law by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan on March 4, 2017. === Washingtonian Magazine''' article === A story in Washingtonian Magazine, by Tiffany Stanley, dated February 14, 2016, highlights three families who were plaintiffs in the lawsuit and their involvement with Sovereign Grace Ministries. The article quotes Plaintiff's attorney, Susan Burke, saying that she "plans to file a new suit in Virginia against the Fairfax church on behalf of at least two plaintiffs." As of January 2018, two years later, no new lawsuit has been filed. Covenant Life apology Leaders of the Fairfax, Virginia, church accused in the lawsuit have "acknowledged the stories of abuse and issued a tearful apology to the families.... senior pastor Mark Mullery blamed the church’s model of reconciliation. 'This resulted in the victim’s family being corrected when they should have been gently cared for as sufferers,'” he said, according to the Washingtonian Magazine'' article. Nathaniel Morales In a different case in 2014, Nathaniel Morales, a youth mentor at Covenant Life Church, who "led youth bible studies, directed worship teams, and even attended sleepovers," was convicted of abusing four boys between 1983 and 1991. "Between 1990 and 2007 at least five members of the church’s staff were told of Morales’s abuse. None notified the police." Subsequently, Covenant Life Church former pastor Grant Layman [Mahaney's brother-in-law] said, while testifying about allegations against Nathaniel Morales, that he [Layman] had not reported the abuse to the police. Layman was not on trial and was not given an opportunity to clarify his remarks in court. Pastors are not mandatory reporters in the State of Maryland. An independent investigator reported that Morales was never a paid employee of Covenant Life Church. Ennis testified before the Maryland Senate Committee that no one had testified during the Morales trial that the church had advised them not to report. In November 2013, SGM issued a statement saying that, years after pastoral counsel was sought,