Boy Scouts settle sex abuse case, sealing years of ‘perversion’ files

Boy Scouts settle sex abuse case, sealing years of ‘perversion’ files     
By Associated Press  January 29, 2015

The Boy Scouts of America settled a sex abuse case Thursday involving a 20-year-old California man who was molested by a Scout volunteer in 2007 — a decision that will keep years’ worth of “perversion” files detailing sex abuse allegations secret from the public.

The announcement of the settlement in the Santa Barbara case came after three days of trial. The terms were confidential at the Boy Scouts’ request, said Tim Hale, the plaintiff’s attorney.

“I can’t go into details about the number, but it was a great result,” Hale said.
Hale had won the right to use the “perversion” files as trial evidence to try to show the Boys Scouts were negligent by not properly training, educating and warning parents, Scouts and volunteers about the dangers of sexual abuse.

Former Boy Scout leader Al Stein who has pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment in 2009. The Boy Scouts of America have agreed to settle a lawsuit by a 20-year-old California man who was molested by Stein in 2007.

He told jurors in his opening statement that they would receive a CD with 100,000 pages of internal documents from 1971 to 2007 during their deliberations. Many of the files have not been seen outside the Scouts.

Hale said Thursday that the settlement will keep the files from being made public. Past settlements in similar cases in Texas and Minnesota also kept them secret....

The release of the more recent files — from 1991 to 2007 — could have revealed how much the Scouts improved their efforts to protect children and report abuse after several high-profile cases and the implementation of a youth protection policy in the late 1980s. Previous large verdicts against the Scouts focused on cases where alleged abuse occurred before the policy was put in place.

In 2012, the Oregon Supreme Court ordered the Scouts to make public a trove of files from 1965 to 1985. The records showed that more than one-third of abuse allegations never were reported to police and that even when authorities were told, little was done most of the time.

Those documents came to light after a jury in 2010 imposed a nearly $20 million penalty against the Scouts in a molestation case in Portland, Oregon, that dated to the early 1980s.
http://nypost.com/2015/01/29/boy-scouts-settle-sex-abuse-case-sealing-years-of-perversion-files/

Boy Scouts of America Settles California Child-Abuse Suit
Case Involves Man Molested When He Was 13 Years Old in 2007 by Scout Volunteer
John R. Emshwiller Jan. 29, 2015

A lawsuit alleging the Boy Scouts of America negligently allowed boys to be sexually molested by Scout leaders has been settled during the first week of a trial in a Santa Barbara, Calif., courtroom.

The settlement, announced on Thursday, involved undisclosed financial terms, said Timothy Hale, an attorney for the plaintiff, who was identified in court papers as “ John Roe. ”

The victim had been molested as a 13-year-old boy in 2007 by a volunteer scout leader, according to a court filing by his attorneys. The filing further alleged the Boy Scouts had concealed records of abuse of boys by Scout leaders and other volunteers over the years.

In a written statement, the Boy Scouts organization said it “is pleased that this matter has been resolved.” While declining to comment on the specifics of the case, the statement said “even a single instance of child victimization or abuse is intolerable and unacceptable.”

Unknown in the wake of the settlement is what will happen with the extensive internal files the plaintiffs obtained from the Boy Scouts regarding how the organization handled past cases of suspected child abuse. Mr. Hale said he favors making them public, but that they are subject to a protective order by the judge....
http://www.wsj.com/articles/boy-scouts-of-america-settles-california-child-abuse-suit-1422561742