Former Scouts Claim They Were Abused for Years While Organization Stood By
Closing arguments begin today in a trial that could be a landmark case against the Boy Scouts of America, which is accused of covering up alleged sexual abuse of several of its Boy Scouts for years.
In a civil suit filed last month in Portland, Ore., six plaintiffs allege that the Boy Scouts of America allowed convicted child sex-offender Timur Dykes to continue to participate and lead troop activities, including sleepovers at his home with the scouts, despite complaints from parents.
The $29 million lawsuit focuses on a now 37-year-old Portland man, unnamed in the filings, who claims he was abused as a boy by Dykes while the Boy Scouts of America and the Cascade Pacific Council in Oregon, his specific Scout branch, did nothing. Dykes, who admitted the abuse, was convicted, imprisoned and is out on parole until 2013.
Furthering the plaintiffs case against the organization is admission into the trial of more than a 1,000 pages of so-called perversion files, which are confidential documents kept by the Boy Scouts of America regarding people who have been kicked out of scouting for a variety of reasons, including sex the abuse of scouts...
