LOS ANGELES
(AP) -- A lawsuit brought by a 20-year-old man who was molested by a Boy
Scout leader in 2007 could force the organization to reveal 16 years'
worth of "perversion" files documenting sex abuse allegations.
Files that were kept by the Boy Scouts of America between 1960 and 1991 already have been made public through other civil cases.
The
release of the more recent files - from 1991 to 2007 - could reveal how
much the Boy Scouts have improved their efforts to protect children and
report abuse after several high-profile cases.
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 a 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.
Since then, plaintiff attorneys in
several states, including Texas and Minnesota, have sought to publicize
the more recent records through similar lawsuits. Those cases have
settled before trial, leaving the records sealed.
Now
the issue moves to Santa Barbara County, where a judge will hear
arguments Friday on whether to admit the documents as evidence. Jury
selection is set to begin next week.
The
issues at play with the Scouts are similar to legal battles over the
release of confidential Roman Catholic clergy abuse files, said Jody
Armour, a law professor at the University of Southern California.
The
judge in the Boy Scouts case faces a balancing act between the privacy
rights of the Scout leaders in the files and the duty to protect
children.
However, "the Boy Scouts just aren't
in a very sympathetic position," Armour said. "They seem to be trying
to shield themselves from liability behind confidentiality and privacy."
In
the Santa Barbara case, the lawsuit states, a 29-year-old Scout
volunteer, Al Stein, pulled down the pants of a 13-year-old boy and
fondled him while the child was working at a Christmas tree lot
fundraiser.
According to the civil complaint, the boy had bruising and
lacerations at his beltline.
Stein had done
something similar to a boy six months before, but the incident never was
reported to the Boy
Scout leadership even though another Scout
volunteer knew of it, said Tim Hale, the plaintiff's attorney.
In
the Oregon case, plaintiff's attorneys argued that Scout leaders knew
about the background of the perpetrator. Those lawyers said the Boy
Scouts referred to a subset of personnel documents that detail to sex
abuse as "perversion" files.
The jury found
the organization negligent for allowing former assistant scoutmaster
Timur Dykes to associate with children after he acknowledged to a Boy
Scout official in 1983 that he had molested 17 boys.
Stein,
now 36, pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment in 2009 and was
sentenced to two years in prison and paroled early. He was most
recently living in Salinas, California, as a registered sex offender. He
was banned from the Boy Scouts in 2007.
The Associated Press does not identify sex abuse victims unless they request it.
Hale
called the files "by far the biggest evidence of this policy of secrecy
and the shortcomings of the education provided" on sexual abuse.
"They had this wealth of information in the files that they could have used. Instead, they just sat on it," he said.
Paul Ryan Ortuno and Sheyanne Bane, attorneys for the Boy Scouts, did not return calls or emails seeking comment.
The
Boy Scouts of America said in an emailed statement that Stein's
behavior was "absolutely unacceptable" but did not address the larger
issue of why the perversion files should remain private.
In
court papers, the organization has argued that the files were used to
keep track of unacceptable volunteers and keep them out of scouting and
that releasing them is a violation of privacy.
The
Scouts instituted mandatory reporting for suspected child abuse in 2010
and now has a requirement that children be accompanied by at least two
adults at all times.
In 2012, Santa Barbara
County Judge Donna Geck ordered the Scouts to turn over all files from
1991 to the present to Hale but ordered them kept under seal.
Last
year, she narrowed the scope of the trial to exclude negligence in
hiring and supervision, among other things, but ruled that the plaintiff
could pursue punitive damages for negligent failure to educate and warn
parents and volunteers about childhood sexual abuse.
If
Hale prevails on Friday, he will be allowed to try to introduce certain
documents from the files as evidence during trial. Documents that are
not part of the trial will remain sealed, but the media and other
interested parties could petition the judge to make them public.
That's
what happened in Oregon. After the 2010 verdict, the Oregon Supreme
Court ordered the Scouts to release the files with the victims' names
redacted after The Associated Press and other media outlets sought their
release.
