More than 1,200 files on suspected molesters in the Boy Scouts of America were made public Thursday, lifting the veil on decades of alleged abuse in one of the nation’s oldest youth organizations.
Times investigative reporter Jason Felch and producer Ken Schwencke discussed the story and The Times database produced from the files in a Google+ Hangout this afternoon (see video above.)
The court-ordered release of the files offers a detailed view of how the Scouts handled suspected molestations from the early 1960s through 1985.
FULL COVERAGE: Inside the ‘perversion files’
Suspected abusers from all over the country are named in the files — many of them never reported to police or charged with a crime. Doctors, lawyers, politicians and policemen are among the accused and many are about to face public exposure for the first time.
“The secrets are out,” said Kelly Clark, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers in an Oregon lawsuit that resulted in a nearly $20-million judgment against the Scouts in 2010. “Child abuse thrives in secrecy, and secret systems are where it breeds.”
Clark’s office made the confidential files public — minus the names of victims and others who reported suspected abuse — after the Oregon Supreme Court ordered their release in June at the request of news organizations including the Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the New York Times and the Associated Press.
Kept by the Boy Scouts for nearly 100 years, the files were intended for internal use to bar suspected molesters from rejoining the organization.
The Los Angeles Times over the last several months analyzed a larger and slightly more recent batch of files —1,900 cases opened on suspected child abusers from 1970 to 1991.
In hundreds of cases, the newspaper found, the Scouts failed to report abuse to authorities and many times covered up allegations to protect the organization’s reputation.
The Times also found that dozens of men who were expelled on suspicion of sexual abuse managed to reenter the organization only to face new allegations.
The Times is incorporating the files released Thursday into its own online database, which contains information on nearly 5,000 such cases spanning 1947 to January 2005.
The database offers a complete record of files opened during that period except for an unknown number of files that have been purged by the Scouts over the years. More than 300 cases involve someone with ties to a troop or unit in California.
ON THE MAP: Names, locations of alleged sex abuse
Many files include graphic descriptions of abuse by young victims, including a 10-year-old Scout from Georgia who described being raped by his 27-year old leader on a 1972 camping trip.
“I kept saying I wanted to go back swimming but he said, ‘Just a minute,’ “ the boy wrote.
“I was crying. … I didn’t go on any more camping trips.”
The scoutmaster was not tried in that case, but later was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 14 years in prison, public records show.
Months ago, The Times obtained the information for its analysis and database from a Seattle attorney, Timothy Kosnoff, who has sued the Scouts more than 100 times on behalf of alleged victims of child abuse.
In a statement Thursday, Boy Scouts’ National President Wayne Perry acknowledged that some allegations of abuse have been mishandled by the Scouts.
“There have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong,” Perry said. “Where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families.”
By Jason Felch and Kim Christensen
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