Abuse Claims Continue To Rock Boy Scouts | Clinton Courier

Boy Scouts of America (BSA) continues to be rocked by allegations of sexual abuse. 21 new lawsuits were filed in July at the Manhattan Supreme Court, accusing the organization of harboring numerous abusers in its ranks.

According to reports, the lawsuits charged 14 adult scout leaders with abuse that, in some cases, dated as far back as 1954. However, the lawsuits also alleged that abuse within the organization was systematic and that it stemmed from when BSA was founded in 1910.

Similar allegations have rocked BSA for decades. The most recent lawsuits were filed in New York, but Mississippi saw similar actions in the past.

Scout leader and Jesuit priest Maurice Meyers, who died in 1980, was one of the 14 adults charged in the new lawsuits. Meyers, who was based at the Ten Mile River scout camps in Narrowsburg, N.Y, was alleged to have started abusing a 9-year-old boy in 1973. The abuse reportedly continued for a year. He was also alleged to have abused two other children.

The lawsuit claimed that the organization created a culture of obedience, which pressurized the child into not reporting the abuse. It went on to accuse the organization of failing in its duty to children and their parents by not supervising or training the agents and volunteers properly.

In a statement issued in response to the newly filed lawsuits, BSA said that it was devastated that children were hurt during their time as scouts. The organization added that it had worked with experts in the fields of child safety, law enforcement, and psychology, to develop policies that protect children, as it hopes to take the scouting tradition into the future.

In February, BSA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a move that reportedly will enable it to compensate victims and continue its existence as one of the largest boy scout associations. The move may also enable the organization to protect the approximately $3.3 billion held by the local councils that comprise the association, which only has about $1.4 billion in assets.

Ordinarily, few, if any, of the complainants named in the newly filed lawsuits would have been able to sue BSA due to statutes of limitations. However, the New York’s Child Victims Act, which came into effect in August 2019, gave them hope that justice might be served.

The Act provided a look back window that gave adult survivors a year-long period to file lawsuits against perpetrators and organizations that had tolerated or covered up past sexual abuse. In May, the state’s lawmakers voted to prolong the act for another year.

According to Mike Finnegan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, the cases of abuse detailed in the court papers were evidence of widespread molestation that went on for decades within the scouting fraternity. He added that it was time for the survivors’ stories to be told and for the truth to be exposed.

In May 2019, six former scouts from Biloxi, Epping, Greenland, Manchester, Northwood, and Raymond, Mississippi, filed a civil lawsuit against BSA and its governing body in the state, Daniel Webster Council (DWC). The six said they were abused by Eugene Perreault, a former scoutmaster at Newfields and Epping from the 1990s to the early 2000s.

The plaintiffs further claimed the BSA and DWC had received reports of abuse by Perreault and then acted negligently by concealing those reports and by allowing him to continue working as a scoutmaster. The BSA class action suit was filed at the Rockingham Superior Court.

The court papers reportedly detail the patterns of abuse committed by Perreault. The former scout leader allegedly invited victims to his home for scouting activities, following which he would abuse them.

They also claim that neither BSA nor DWC investigated him after an Epping resident reported him for abusing two boys in 1991. Instead, the groups allegedly withheld information from the police, parents, and scouts, and that they allowed Perreault to continue abusing boys.

BSA responded to the allegations in court documents filed by their attorneys, McLane Middleton Professional Association’s Wilburn Glahn III and Michael Delaney. BSA claimed that any abuse allegedly committed by Perreault was beyond the scope of his scout leader duties.

The organization and DWC also claimed that they could not be held liable for the damages allegedly suffered by his victims. The papers asserted that Perreault’s invitations to his home violated a BSA rule that requires two adult leaders to be present for all scouting-related activities.

In 2016, a criminal investigation was launched against Perreault. Several former scouts participated in the investigation, and Perreault later pleaded guilty to 13 counts of felonious sexual assault and four counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. The former scout leader was sentenced to 12 to 30 years in prison.

2019 saw the filing of an abuse lawsuit at the U.S. District Court in Little Rock, Arkansas. The plaintiffs, Travis Barkley of Mississippi and Jeffrey Burfeind of Florida alleged that BSA reassigned Sam Otts, a scout leader who had been accused of abuse. The reassignment allowed Otts to abuse the boys, who were about 10 years old at the time, on multiple occasions during outings to Hot Springs in 1979 and 1980.

Joshua Gillispie, the attorney representing Barkley and Burfeind, also represents four other defendants based in Pulaski County and in Washington County, who claim to have been abused by Otts. According to Gillispie, the plaintiffs found out shortly before taking legal action that BSA knew Otts had abused boys before the organization allowed him to operate as a scout leader in Arkansas.

A so-called “perversion file” had been discovered, containing proof that the BSA was fully aware of Otts history. The file also contained allegations against 1,247 scout leaders and revealed that in 2012, 20 reports of alleged sexual abuse in BSA units in Mississippi had been recorded.

The 20 reports of incidents in Mississippi named units in Belzoni, Biloxi, Cleveland, Columbia, Columbus, Greenwood, Hattiesburg, Hazlehurst, Hernando, Indianola, Long Beach, Meridian, Olive Branch, Star, and Vicksburg. The incidents reportedly took place between 1958 and 2003 and may be investigated further.