6 Ore. men settle Boy Scout sex abuse cases

6 Ore. men settle Boy Scout sex abuse cases - Tim Fought, AP – Sep 1, 2010 PORTLAND, Ore. – Six men who were sexually abused three decades ago by a leader of their Boy Scouts troop have settled lawsuits against the national organization dedicated to building character among youngsters. The settlement followed a trial in which the Scouts were accused of failing to act for decades on a growing trove of documents alleging sexual abuse — known in the organization as "the perversion files."

In April, an Oregon jury awarded the first of the six victims to go to trial nearly $20 million from the century-old, congressionally chartered organization....
The jury found the Texas-based Boy Scouts of America negligent for allowing a former assistant scoutmaster, Timur Dykes, to associate with Scouts after he admitted to a Scouts official in 1983 that he had molested 17 boys....

The Boy Scouts have settled sex abuse lawsuits out of court before, although the exact number is not known because not all are announced.
But an expert on the subject, Patrick Boyle, has said the Scouts were sued at least 60 times in 1984-92 for alleged sex abuse, with settlements and judgments totaling more than $16 million.

The plaintiffs' lawyers said they represent more than a dozen victims in similar sex abuse cases, mainly in the West and Florida. Given the evidence from two decades worth of Scouts documents, the number of instances of sexual abuse that go unreported and the number of victims that sexual predators typically have, the pending cases represent a sliver of what are likely tens of thousands of cases of abuse, said Paul Mones, another attorney for the six men. "During the trial we heard from men in their 60s and 70s who were molested in the 1940s, '50s and '60s," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100901/ap_on_re_us/us_boy_scouts_sex_abuse