By SCOTT K. PARKS / The Dallas Morning News
sparks@dallasnews.com

The Boy Scouts of America calls them the "perversion files."

MIKE DAVIS/Special Contributor

Kelly Clark (left) and Paul Mones, attorneys for former Scout Kerry Lewis, gained access to ‘ineligible volunteer files’ and won an $18.5 million jury verdict against the Boy Scouts in April. They argued officials could have used the files to gauge their pedophilia problem.

The stories locked inside a neat row of metal file cabinets at BSA headquarters in Irving would sicken the most callous reader. Many of them document the activities of a pedophile banned from Scouting for molesting boys in tents, on hikes or while helping them earn merit badges.

The BSA, the nation’s premier youth organization, its wholesome image honed by iconic Norman Rockwell paintings throughout the 20th century, has meticulously kept the files since the 1920s.

They number in the thousands, but no one knows much about them because Scout executives and their lawyers insist they remain confidential.

Now, a growing chorus of critics is calling on the Scouts to open their sexual secrets to public scrutiny. They argue that the files contain a treasure trove of misdeeds that academic researchers and law enforcement might use to learn more about man-on-boy pedophilia.

"These files represent the largest reservoir of information ever gathered on the sexual abuse of boys in the United States, bar none," said Paul Mones, an Oregon lawyer who represents former Scouts who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of adult Scoutmasters.

"Even before the pediatric medical community and the law enforcement community knew the extent of the problem, the Boy Scouts knew about it and kept it a secret," Mones said.

Another lawyer, from Seattle, who also represents former Scouts in sex abuse cases against the BSA, provided The Dallas Morning News with a hint of what the files contain – spreadsheets indexing 5,133 files opened between 1947 and 2005. The News has not seen the actual files.

The Scouts regularly open new files. But they insist the information be kept confidential to protect those who report sexual abuse from retaliation, to shield child victims from exposure and to protect the Scouts from defamation claims brought by suspected pedophiles named in the files.

Scouting executives say the perversion files represent a tiny fraction of the millions of adult volunteers involved in Scouting over the years, and they contend that the pedophile problem is no worse in Scouting than in public schools or in other youth organizations.

The BSA also insists the files hold no value for academic or law enforcement researchers hoping to gain greater insight into pedophilia.

"Accordingly, while local Boy Scout councils are required to report any suspicion of inappropriate conduct to law enforcement, The BSA believes – and third parties have confirmed – that the files are not useful from a research perspective," Scout executives wrote in a prepared statement to The Dallas Morning News.

Formally, the Scouts refer to the files as "the ineligible volunteer files," or the "I.V. files." Each one is labeled with the name of a Scoutmaster, Cub Scout den leader or other adult volunteer who has been banned from Scouting for wrongdoing. Nathaniel Marshall, the Scout executive who keeps the files, says they are separated into six categories:

• C-Criminal (murderers, robbers and such)

• F-Financial (thieves who steal from the Scouts or others)

• M-Moral (gays banned from Scouting)

• L-Leadership (bad-tempered or mean volunteers)

• R-Religious (atheists or agnostics banned from Scouting)

• P-Perversion (pedophilia, rape, child pornography, public lewdness and other sex-related crimes or incidents)

A few of the files involve men who never even made it into Scouting. Their misdeeds were noted by local Scout executives and a file was opened just in case they ever applied to get involved in Scouting.

But the vast majority of the I.V. files involve pedophile adult volunteers and some paid Scout leaders. They run the gamut from those only suspected of wrongdoing to those serving prison time after criminal convictions.

Some files are thin, with only basic information about the pedophile. Others are thick and stuffed with court records, witness statements and other investigative material.

All of the files end up in the innocuously named "membership resources office." There is only one set of keys to the file cabinets, Marshall said.

Scout executives say they use the perversion files for only one reason: to keep pedophiles or other sexual deviants out of Scouting. When someone attempts to register as an adult volunteer, the application goes to the membership office. Clerks make sure the prospective volunteer is not someone named in an I.V. file.

The BSA also performs criminal background checks for all volunteer applicants. Successful applicants are subject to background checks every three years.

Notations in the file indices obtained by The News indicate the system often works. Pedophiles caught and banned by the BSA have tried to reapply to become Scoutmasters. But their applications have been denied for wrongdoings logged into the I.V. files.

Scout executives say they’ve never analyzed the files or used them to generate statistics on pedophilia in Scouting. Nor have they used them to determine whether their policies to protect Scouts from pedophiles are working.

Are the pedophile Scoutmasters married or single? Do they have children in the troop? How old are they? Where did the molestation occur? In a tent on a campout? On a hike? In a school or church basement? In the pedophile’s home or apartment? Did the pedophile groom a single victim during a long-term relationship, or did he victimize several Scouts in a troop?

Scout executives haven’t used the I.V. files to find the answers, but they insist they are aggressively pursuing improvements in their Youth Protection Program.

"The more we learned about pedophilia, we got tuned in to that very quickly," James Terry, the assistant chief Scout executive, told The News. "We got serious about it."

Critics disagree. They say the Scouts could redact the I.V. files – black out the names of alleged pedophiles, victims and those who reported the abuse – and then share them with experts to learn more about pedophilia and the effectiveness of Scout policies.

In the mid-1980s, as their awareness of pedophilia grew, the Scouts instituted the "two-deep leadership" rule that forbids Scoutmasters and other volunteers to be alone with a Scout.

And, yet, the Scouts acknowledge that they have never searched the I.V. files to see if the policy is working.

Even child sexual abuse experts sympathetic to the BSA’s cause question their reluctance to share the files or expand their use.

Dr. David Finkelhor, a well-known expert in crimes against children, once was a member of the BSA’s Youth Protection Expert Advisory Panel, a working group of Scout executives and outsiders from academia and law enforcement. The committee was supposed to be working on programs to educate Scouts about pedophiles and other dangerous people.

In April 2009, Finkelhor testified in a sworn deposition that he had become frustrated with Scout executives because they refused to allow him or anyone else to examine the perversion files to see if youth protection policies were working.

"It never seemed to get on their agenda," said Finkelhor, who runs the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

He wasn’t the only child safety expert who became disenchanted with the Scouts and the Youth Protection Program.

Kenneth V. Lanning, a retired FBI agent who specializes in crimes against children, also served on the BSA’s expert advisory panel for almost 10 years. In April 2005, he sent a letter to Boy Scout headquarters announcing his resignation from the volunteer group.

Lanning said his resignation stemmed from "my perception that the BSA response to and attitude regarding [the advisory panel] fails to convey an adequate understanding and recognition of the problem of the sexual exploitation of children."

No one knows how many I.V. files exist. The BSA won’t provide numbers. But the public has gotten glimpses from court records when former Scouts file personal injury suits alleging that the BSA and its local troop councils failed to prevent abuse by Scoutmasters or assistant Scoutmasters.

Last April, a Portland, Ore., jury awarded former Scout Kerry Lewis $18.5 million in punitive damages after finding the BSA negligent for not protecting him against abuse by a known pedophile Scoutmaster in the 1980s.

Throughout the trial, Lewis’ lawyers argued that Scout executives acted irresponsibly by not using the I.V. files to get a more complete picture of their pedophilia problem, and the jury apparently agreed.

The verdict jolted the Scouts. Since April, the BSA has instituted mandatory youth protection training for all Scoutmasters and other registered volunteers.

Last month, the BSA hired Michael V. Johnson, a respected detective recently retired from the Plano Police Department, as its director of youth protection.

"One of the reasons I accepted this job is the commitment of [top Scout executives] that they want to be on the forefront of youth protection," Johnson said.

Johnson said he has not formed an opinion about what, if anything, to do with the I.V. files.

The $18.5 million jury verdict in Portland also drove the BSA to settle five similar sex abuse cases late last month. But the Scouts still face numerous other cases across the U.S.

During the Portland trial, the Scouts were forced to give Lewis’ lawyers 1,587 I.V. files opened between 1965 and 1985. The vast majority, 1,123 files, were in the perversion category.

Janet Warren, an expert witness hired by the Scouts, testified that she reviewed many of the files in preparation for the trial.

"It was very limited what you could learn from these files," testified Warren, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia.

Warren also cautioned jurors to put the number of abuse incidents into perspective.

"By contrast, there would be somewhere between 100,000 and a million incidents where Boy Scouts went on camping trips or went to the home of their Scout leader to do a merit badge and was not accosted or hurt in any way," she said.

Even though the I.V. files from 1965 to 1985 were entered into evidence during the Lewis trial, a procedure that usually makes information public, the Scouts are fighting to keep them confidential. And the judge in the Lewis case has issued a protective order to keep the files secret.

The Associated Press and several other news organizations have filed a motion with the Oregon Supreme Court to make the files public. The court has yet to rule.

The public got another glimpse of the I.V. files in a similar series of lawsuits filed by former Scouts against the BSA in the state of Washington.

Tim Kosnoff, one of the plaintiff lawyers, prepared spreadsheets indexing 5,133 I.V. files opened between 1947 and 2005. He has read the material in hundreds of those files.

"To the extent there are any Scouts reasonably safe today, it has nothing to do with Scouting," he said. "It is parents. Show me a troop where parents are actively involved and I’ll show you a safe troop.

"For too many parents, Scouting is a free baby-sitting service. And pedophiles don’t go after the kids whose dads are active. They look for the kid who is craving adult male attention."

Dr. Gary Schoener, a Minneapolis psychologist, testified as an expert witness for the plaintiff in the Portland case.

The perversion files started as a noble idea, an effective tool to keep track of pedophiles, he said.

But somewhere along the way, the Scouts became concerned about the possible legal liabilities of storing vast amounts of raw data about pedophiles and their victims. The reluctance to analyze the data seems designed to limit liability, Schoener said.

Even so, Schoener and other critics acknowledge the good things that BSA has done for youth around the world during the last 100 years.

"The Boy Scouts have done some fine work, but they could do it better," he said. "This is about the good guys not being good enough."

An Open Letter to Youth Organizations, Churches, and Schools.
By Kelly Clark
September 1, 2010

After six weeks of trial against the Boy Scouts of America—resulting in, as far as I know, the largest child abuse verdict in American history on behalf of one plaintiff—I am being asked repeatedly to blog about the lessons from the trial.  There are of course many, and some of the most important have to do with Kerry Lewis, my client and now friend, who stood so courageously and told his story so clearly.  But the lessons from the other end of the evidence—about what happens when good youth organizations forget their first principles and react to allegations of child abuse by keeping secrets—is what I want to write about first. So here is an open letter to youth organizations; here is what I hope they learn:

Dear Youth Organization:

I write this to you because you have taken on the great task of working with children.  Whether you are a school, a church, an athletic league, a dance company or a day care center, whether you are a public or private entity, whether you are a new organization or have been around for decades, you are doing good work. You are helping our young people to grow up, and you are doing your best. No doubt.  So I respectfully offer some of the lessons of the long trial in Portland, Oregon against the Boy Scouts.  Please learn these lessons, so that kids will be safe and so that you don’t make the same mistakes that too many other youth organizations have made.

So, while it is all fresh in our minds, let’s consider the lessons from this trial against the Boy Scouts of America – once America’s most trusted youth organization – as the evidence came in to a very attentive and unusually well-educated jury:

1.  You Cannot Keep Secrets About Hidden Dangers to Children.

Youth organizations must do everything feasible to protect children, and cannot keep secrets about hidden dangers to children.”  This simple theme was the foundation for our entire case. It seemed to us—my co-counsel Paul Mones and I– to be a fair and general principle to which any youth organization would agree.  We had planned to go from that principle to showing that BSA had not adhered to the common sense rules.   Yet numerous times during the trial we were stunned to hear witnesses for the BSA who would refuse to acknowledge this basic idea. Not refuse to acknowledge that the BSA violated this idea– we expected that.  But refuse to acknowledge the basic principle itself!   The message given to the jury by such quibbling was that the BSA was playing word games and putting qualifiers on the question of safety to children. 

The fact is, the BSA has known for decades that it had a serious child abuse problem. They kept interior confidential files on the problem since the 1920’s, and certainly by the 1950’s and 60’s knew that the thousands of files (the evidence was that by 1985 the BSA had at least 3000- 4000 pedophile files)—representing thousands or tens of thousands of children abused–  meant that their program was being targeted by pedophiles. 

Yet, the BSA still refused to admit in open court the very obvious truth that it had, and has, a child abuse problem.  Several key witnesses repeatedly argued about or qualified the simple phrase “problem” in response to direct questions. It was like listening to an alcoholic or addict refuse to admit that he or she “has a problem” and needs help, when everyone around sees the chaos and insanity of substance addiction.  The jury saw this fierce and calculated denial of the problem, and quite apparently did not like it.

So the message is simple: youth organizations cannot keep secrets about hidden dangers to children. Parents and the community have a right to know if there is a risk to children.  You would give a clear warning about food poisoning among your kids, or about a dangerous crosswalk near your building.  The fact that your warning might have to be about an embarrassing problem with child abuse within your organization does not change the obligation to warn. Not even for the esteemed Boy Scouts of America.  That is one of the key lessons of this trial.

2. As your knowledge increases, so does your responsibility. 

Oregon law, as is true of the law in most states—as well as common sense– says that whether a person acted “reasonably” under the circumstances depends upon what the person knew about the dangers at issue.  A seaside hotel owner who knows that people regularly get caught in dangerous ocean undertows right in front of the hotel has a different obligation to warn guests than that same hotel owner might have to warn about a freak and unforeseeable storm.  It is just common sense.  So, as the BSA over the years and decades gathered its knowledge about the pedophile problem within Scouting, it was no longer good enough simply to keep a list of the pedophiles so they could not come back into the organization.  At some point, the BSA had an obligation to take and use that information to make the organization safer. If the BSA headquarters had been filled with $100 bills instead of the names of little boys, and 4000 times over a 5 decade period thieves had broken in to steal money, the BSA would not simply have kept a list of the thieves to prevent them from getting into the building. The BSA would have changed its security systems to prevent new thieves from getting in!  That simple analogy perfectly describes the BSA’s response to its child abuse problem.

So the second lesson for youth organizations from the BSA trial is painfully obvious– as your knowledge increases so does your responsibility.  Is it a good thing to keep data about your safety issues?  Of course. Is it smart to make sure that a known pedophile cannot get back into your organization?  Obviously.  But that, in and of itself, is not enough to fulfill your duty to protect children.  You must look at what changes are necessary to make the organization safer.

3. You must always put the safety of children ahead of the interests of the organization.

If there is a common thread that I have seen in advocating for child abuse victims against a variety of institutions of trust—churches, schools, foster care agencies, and now the BSA—it is this:  there seems to be an idea that the work of the organization is so important, its goals so noble, that there might be times when it is necessary to “keep a lid on this problem.”  This, of course, is the misguided historical response that produced the ongoing scandals in the Catholic Church.  But it goes way beyond that particular institution of trust.  So many youth organizations have great goals and purposes.  They do good work. They help children and help the community.  And so, when trouble comes along, their first instinct is to protect the work. And if this means keeping a potentially embarrassing problem quiet—even at the risk of keeping secrets about child abuse—they reactively take that route.  While that may be an understandable reaction, it is always disastrous, sooner or later.  The old idea that “the ends justify the means” can never apply to a sluggish response to child abuse, and too many good organizations fall prey to the temptation to protect the organization.   The safety of children, and whatever it takes to accomplish that—including blaring trumpet warnings if that is necessary—must always take precedence over the reputation of the organization.  That is lesson 3 from the BSA trial.

4. When it goes bad, accept responsibility and apologize.

It is a timeless truth that runs through all societies at all times and places, but especially through the religions and ethical systems of Western culture: apologies heal.  This truth is central to our legal system as well, even to the point that it is an expectation in the criminal justice system that someone who is found to have broken the community’s rules will apologize—in part, at least because we understand that it will be helpful for the victim.  But it is not limited to the criminal justice courts: we expect apologies from those who have harmed others, and those who have knowingly failed to protect those in their care—especially institutions of trust such as churches, schools and youth organizations like the Boy Scouts. 

And all this is especially true for victims of child sexual abuse, who so often believe that, somehow the abuse was their fault, that they should have done something to stop it, or they should have immediately told someone—all beliefs which the mental health professionals tell us are almost universal in child abuse victims.  So when they receive an acknowledgement of responsibility and a sincere apology from those responsible for their abuse— the perpetrator of the abuse, an institution that could have prevented the abuse, or both—it is incredibly healing and empowering.  Suddenly, in one moment, the survivor realizes that his or her core beliefs about this life-altering event—“it was my fault; I am fundamentally flawed because of what I did and did not do about this”—are all wrong, and that the person or institution who is factually and morally responsible for the abuse is owning up to what happened. The weight and burden of this wrong, which has been on the shoulders of the victim for so many years or even decades, is lifted off of the victim and placed where it belongs.

This is such basic common sense and human experience that it is hard to understand why institutions of trust—such as the Boy Scouts, the Catholic Church, and others— are so reluctant to make this simple and profound gesture.  Of course, it involves the acceptance of responsibility, and too often that acceptance is slow to come for an organization that prides itself on the nobility of its purpose. It is, after all, hard for someone who thinks he is a hero, or divinely inspired, to admit that he failed utterly in one of his prime responsibilities and is now being called to account for it.  We have seen this for at least a decade in watching the Catholic Church come to grips with the magnitude of its child abuse problem—to accept that it even had a particular problem, to acknowledge that the Church badly failed in its historic response to that problem, and to make unequivocal apologies to those who were damaged by those failures. 

This same dynamic of denial seems to be true for the BSA—which, apart from the specific facts of this case in Portland, continues to deny publicly that it has historically had a serious child abuse problem—different both in type and frequency from that in society at large.  Not once during the decades that we have litigated against the BSA, in dozens of cases, whether settled or tried to a jury,  has the BSA offered even a simple apology to any of our clients.  And we know of no circumstance in which the BSA ever has issued an apology to the thousands of boys who were abused by Scout leaders.

I want to say in conclusion, again, that the Boy Scouts of America is a great organization. Our boys need good, strong role models to learn the art and habits of living an honorable life as they move into manhood.  Lord knows our society needs more young men of integrity, purpose and faith.  BSA is in a position as it enters its second century to play a unique role in shaping young men.  It is an awesome responsibility.  We can only hope that the leadership of this organization steps back, moves past the shock and shame of a jury’s stern rebuke, and takes stock of what is truly all about.  If it does, then it can move to reclaim society’s trust and admiration. If it does not, if it continues to shoot the messengers—lawyers, plaintiffs, juries, the news media– then it will lose its credibility, it will become a shell of what it once was and again could be, and it will eventually slide into irrelevance. 

The Standard Examiner

NPR
By The Associated Press

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.

"I’m glad it’s over with. I’m glad the jury heard us and believed us," said Kerry Lewis, an unemployed former factory worker who now lives in Medford, Ore. "Other children in the future will have more p

rotection than I did."

Lewis agreed during the trial to be identified in news stories. He participated by telephone with his lawyers at a news conference Wednesday.

The second trial was scheduled in October. Lawyers for the men said the settlement agreement was reached last week.

Only one of the financial details was made public, and that because it would be a matter of public record: The state of Oregon will be paid $2.25 million in punitive damages.

By law, the state gets 60 percent of punitive damage awards in Oregon. But plaintiffs’ lawyer Kelly Clark cautioned against making calculations based on the state’s allocation.

"You can’t just do the math," he said. "It’s not even close."

The other five men were prepared to go to trial, Clark said. All six were determined not to settle individually, he said, and all settled because they are "in the process of getting on with their lives and getting healed."

He refused to say whether they would have equal settlements.

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.

"We extend our sympathies to the victims and are pleased to have reached a settlement which will both prevent these men from reliving their experiences during a trial and allow BSA to focus even more intently on the continued enhancement of our youth protection program," Boy Scouts of America spokesman Deron Smith said in an e-mail.

Journalists have sought the documents the jury saw, and the Oregon Supreme Court is considering whether to make them public.

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.

Paying punitive damages to the state constituted an acknowledgment of wrongdoing from the Scouts, he said. He said the jury verdict led the organization to require training in abuse issues for its volunteers and to hire a former police officer as a child protection advocate.

"Basically, hopefully, it’s a new day for the Boy Scouts now," Mones said.

Portland Tribune

Six men who were abused by a Boy Scout leader in the 1980s reached a financial settlement with the Boy Scouts of America.

The settlement includes a requirement that the Boy Scouts pay the state $2.25 million as 60 percent of the punitive damages in the case.

The amount of the settlement was kept confidential. It came five months after a Multnomah County jury awarded Kerry Lewis $19.9 million in damages for abuse he suffered at the hands of Assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes.

The trial in April featured for the first time the secret files – what the Boy Scouts calls its “Perversion Files” – with more than 20,000 pages of documents on child abuse, demonstrating that the organization was aware for decades of the size and scale of its child abuse problem.

Five other men also abused by Dykes in the same troop were scheduled to begin trials of their cases this fall.

“On behalf of all six of us, I can say that we are glad this is over,” Lewis said. “Three years of litigation has taken a huge toll on our lives and families, but we believe it was worth the struggle because the jury heard what happened and stood with us. We believed in the best ideals of Scouting – and still do – but we also want Scouting to act consistently with those ideals. Hopefully, they now will.”

Portland attorneys Kelly Clark and Paul Mones announced the settlement Wednesday morning in Portland.

By Aimee Green
The Oregonian
September 1, 2010

A settlement with six men molested by a former Portland Boy Scout leader is the latest in a series of new steps by the 100-year-old national youth organization to acknowledge its dark past and adopt safeguards to better protect boys from sexual abuse.

The settlement, announced Wednesday, prevents the men from talking about how much money each received to compensate them for abuse in the 1980s. But the amount likely reaches into the multiple millions of dollars, considering the Boy Scouts of America also will pay the state $2.25 million as part of the agreement.

Kelly Clark,  an attorney for the men, said he hoped the settlement makes the Boy Scouts safer for children, just as widespread sexual-abuse litigation against the Catholic Church made the church safer.

"That’s not primarily because the bishops got the Holy Spirit, that’s because the bishops got sued," Clark said.

Clark and attorney Paul Mones won a more than $19 million jury verdict against the Boy Scouts of America in April for failing to protect 38-year-old Kerry Lewis from Timur Dykes — an assistant Scoutmaster and convicted pedophile who had admitted to molesting 17 boys.

The verdict helped move along the settlement negotiations, the attorneys said. Lewis joined the others to avoid what was expected to be a lengthy appeal of the jury’s verdict in his case, believed to be the largest award in the country for a sexual abuse victim.

Lewis and the other five men were all members of the same troop and victims of Dykes. The men, now in their 30s and early 40s, claimed that Scouting executives knew they had a decades-long problem of pedophiles volunteering, yet failed to warn parents or children.

The Boy Scouts are now responding with better policies, the attorneys said.

Five weeks after the trial, the Texas-based organization made youth-protection training mandatory for all registered volunteers.

Three months after the trial, the organization’s first ever youth-protection director began work. Mike Johnson, a former child-sexual abuse investigator for the police department in Plano, Texas, is considered a "world-renowned expert," said Deron Smith,  a spokesman for the Boy Scouts.

"I’m glad the community and the jury heard us and believed us," said Lewis, who agreed to be identified in news stories during the trial and now lives in Klamath Falls. "And I’m glad other children are going to have more protection than I did. It makes it all worthwhile."

Lewis said the Scouts have never directly said they were sorry. But Smith, the Scouts spokesman, said a statement he e-mailed to media Wednesday contained an apology.

"We extend our sympathies to the victims and are pleased to have reached a settlement which will both prevent these men from reliving their experiences during a trial and allow BSA to focus even more intently on the continued enhancement of our youth protection program," the statement read.

It also stated that "youth safety is the number one priority of the Boy Scouts of America, and we are deeply saddened by the events in these cases."

Though no one will say how much the settlement is worth, the payment to the state indicates it’s high. Under Oregon law, the state gets 60 percent of all punitive-damage awards, and it had $11.1 million coming under April’s verdict. So lawyers for both sides allowed the state to negotiate a settlement.

Clark cautioned people not to speculate about the overall amount based on the state figure. "You can’t do the math, it’s not even close," Clark said.

Key to Lewis’ case were so-called red-flag files that the Boy Scouts have fought to keep out of the public eye, but that Multnomah County Circuit Judge John Wittmayer  allowed to be used during the trial. The files amounted to 20,000 pages of information collected by Boy Scout executives from 1965 to 1985 on 1,247 volunteers who were suspected of molesting boys or other inappropriate behavior.

  Lewis’ attorneys estimated that the files encompassed 6,000 to 18,000 children who had been abused over 20 years. That’s a fraction — maybe 10 to 20 percent — of the true number of victims because most sexual abuse isn’t reported, Mones said. Most victims, he said, don’t get the resolution his six clients got from the settlement.

"And that’s a tragedy," Mones said.

Clark said he has 14 other clients who are suing the Boy Scouts for sexual abuse in Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Florida.

– Aimee Green

By TIM FOUGHT
Associated Press
September 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.

"I’m glad it’s over with. I’m glad the jury heard us and believed us," said Kerry Lewis, an unemployed former factory worker who now lives in Medford, Ore. "Other children in the future will have more protection than I did."

Lewis agreed during the trial to be identified in news stories. He participated by telephone with his lawyers at a news conference Wednesday.

The second trial was scheduled in October. Lawyers for the men said the settlement agreement was reached last week.

Only one of the financial details was made public, and that because it would be a matter of public record: The state of Oregon will be paid $2.25 million in punitive damages.

By law, the state gets 60 percent of punitive damage awards in Oregon. But plaintiffs’ lawyer Kelly Clark cautioned against making calculations based on the state’s allocation.

"You can’t just do the math," he said. "It’s not even close."

The other five men were prepared to go to trial, Clark said. All six were determined not to settle individually, he said, and all settled because they are "in the process of getting on with their lives and getting healed."

He refused to say whether they would have equal settlements.

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.

"We extend our sympathies to the victims and are pleased to have reached a settlement which will both prevent these men from reliving their experiences during a trial and allow BSA to focus even more intently on the continued enhancement of our youth protection program," Boy Scouts of America spokesman Deron Smith said in an e-mail.

Journalists have sought the documents the jury saw, and the Oregon Supreme Court is considering whether to make them public.

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.

Paying punitive damages to the state constituted an acknowledgment of wrongdoing from the Scouts, he said. He said the jury verdict led the organization to require training in abuse issues for its volunteers and to hire a former police officer as a child protection advocate.

"Basically, hopefully, it’s a new day for the Boy Scouts now," Mones said.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By Amelia Templeton
OPB
September 1, 2010 

Six men who alleged they were sexually abused by an Oregon Boy Scouts leader in the 1980s have settled their lawsuit. The men sued  the Boy Scouts of America and its local branch, the Cascade Pacific Council.

At a press conference today, attorney Kelly Clark would not say how much money each plaintiff would receive from the Boy Scouts.

Kelly Clark: “What is not confidential about the settlement is that the state of Oregon will be paid $2.2 million in punitive damages directly by the Boy Scouts. And we believe this will be the first time ever that the Boy Scouts have paid punitive damages.”

One of the six plaintiffs, Kerry Lewis, went to trial this spring. A jury found the Scouts negligent for failing to warn Lewis’ family that his scoutmaster had abused other boys.

They awarded a record $20 million in damages. But the Scouts said they planned to appeal.

The settlement ends that litigation. The Boy Scouts said in a statement they are focusing on improving their youth protection program.

© 2010 OPB

The Boy Scouts of America have reached a financial settlement with six men who say they were sexually abused when they were members of the same troop in Oregon in the 1980s.

The settlement, whose terms were not disclosed, was reached last week and announced Wednesday by the plaintiff’s lawyers. It was confirmed by the national scouting organization, which is based in Irving, Texas.

“I’m so glad this is over,” Kerry Lewis, 38, one of the former scouts, said in a conference call with reporters.

Deron Smith, a spokesman for the Scouts, said the organization was “deeply saddened by the events in these cases” and extended its sympathies to the victims. He said the Scouts had taken steps to improve its youth protection program and provide a safer environment for boys.

The settlement comes after a trial in which a jury awarded Mr. Lewis $19.9 million in damages in April. His lawyers, Kelly Clark and Paul Mones, based in Portland, are representing more than a dozen other former scouts in abuse cases around the country; several others are also pending.

The six former scouts had initially joined in one lawsuit, in 2007, but the judge in the case, John A. Wittmayer, selected Mr. Lewis’s case to go to trial first. At the trial, a former assistant troop leader, Timur Dykes, admitted to molesting Mr. Lewis when Mr. Lewis, who still lives in Oregon, was about 12. After the verdict, the judge sent both sides into mediation in hopes of reaching a settlement in all six cases.

The Scouts intended to appeal Mr. Lewis’s jury award and had not yet paid it, Mr. Mones said; a payment to Mr. Lewis is part of the negotiated settlement, but his lawyers would not say whether his settlement exceeded his jury award. The Scouts were ordered to pay the State of Oregon $2.25 million in punitive damages.

The lawyers said their clients had decided to settle because their cases could have gone on for years.

By SCOTT K. PARKS / The Dallas Morning News
sparks@dallasnews.com
Saturday, July 24, 2010

Pedophilia has dogged the Boy Scouts for decades, and the issue shows no signs of going away. No one knows how many men have infiltrated the organization for immoral sexual purposes.

News organizations and child advocates are awaiting an Oregon court’s ruling on whether thousands of internal files documenting suspected pedophiles in Scouting should be released to the public.

The so-called "ineligible volunteer" files are kept at the Boy Scouts’ national headquarters in Irving.

Spanning two decades between 1965 and 1985, they tell unspeakable stories.

The files were entered into evidence during a civil court case pitting former Boy Scout Kerry Lewis against the Scouts’ national council and its Portland-area branch.

Lewis alleged that a Scoutmaster had sexually abused him repeatedly when he was a Scout during the 1980s – even after the Scoutmaster had been identified as a pedophile.

The case ended in April when a jury returned an $18.5 million verdict against the Scouts.

Kelly Clark, one of Lewis’ attorneys, successfully argued that the BSA had reacted defensively to allegations that it hadn’t done enough to identify and prosecute pedophiles in its ranks, preferring instead to quietly expel them.

Evidence showed that Scout leaders often did not tell parents that pedophile Scoutmasters had abused their children. The Oregon jury’s verdict sent a clear message to Scouting, Clark said.

"The short version is that you cannot put the mission of the organization above the safety of kids, no matter how divinely inspired you think it is," Clark said.

The Scouts plan to appeal the Oregon verdict, but they face similar pedophile cases around the U.S.

Virginia Starr, a spokeswoman for the Scouts, addressed the issue in e-mailed answers to questions from The Dallas Morning News. She said the organization established a Youth Protection Program in the late 1980s and has repeatedly improved it during the last 20 years.

Scout leaders are no longer allowed to meet one on one with boys. Mandatory youth-protection training for all Scoutmasters and other adult volunteers was adopted just last month. Criminal background checks for volunteers are required.

In addition, Scoutmasters and Scouts cannot sleep in the same tent unless they are father and son. Separate shower arrangements are made for adults and children on campouts.

Jim Brunner, Scoutmaster of Troop 300 in Plano, is among the many adult volunteers watching the pedophile cases as they go to court. He said the allegations are decades old and do not reflect today’s reality.

He praised chief Scout executive Bob Mazzuca and the national office for adapting to the times, even to the point of including warnings against pedophiles in the legendary Boy Scout Handbook.

"The Boy Scouts are on the cutting edge of youth protection," Brunner said. "They’ve led the way."

Pedophiles present one problem for the Scouts. The ban on gays presents another challenge. It essentially forces families to decide whether it’s ethical to belong to a group that discriminates against people based on sexual orientation.

Mazzuca said his organization’s position is essentially synonymous with the U.S. military’s "Don’t ask, don’t tell" policy.

"The issue only becomes an issue when a person makes it an issue," he said in an interview with The News. "Sexuality has no place in Scouting in any context."

In a two-page document titled "2009 Report to the Nation," Mazzuca makes no mention of youth protection or any of the other issues that threaten to distract Scouting from its mission.

Instead, the report is filled with facts: Scouts collaborate with 118,000 educational, faith-based and community organizations; 52,470 Scouts earned the Eagle rank in 2009; Scouts contributed more than 700,000 hours to projects beneficial to streams, lakes, oceans and other bodies of water.

Concluding his interview with The News, Mazzuca said, "We plan to be here for another hundred years."