According to the AP, The Boy Scouts of America are finally going to release its peversion files which should have been disclosed decades ago. For decades, the organization has witheld the identity of the suspected abusers named in its perversion files from police departments and sheriff’s offices across the country. The court-ordered release of the perversion files from 1965 to 1985, is expected sometime in October.
The release may prompt criminal prosecutions for offenders. Many states have no statutes of limitations for children victimized when they were younger than 16, so even decades-old crimes could be prosecuted
The Scouts started maintaing the files shortly after their creation in 1910. Some of files released in 1991, detailing cases from 1971 to 1991, showed repeated instances of Scouts leaders failing to disclose sex abuse to authorities, even when they had a confession.
In April 2010 a jury found the BSA had failed to protect the plaintiff from a pedophile assistant Scoutmaster in the 1980s, even though that man had previously admitted molesting Scouts. The jury awarded $20 million to the plaintiff.
We expect that the release of the Boy Scout perversion files will lead to additional civil lawsuits, similar to lawsuits filed against Jerry Sandusky and the Catholic Church.
If you or a loved one was abused while in the Boy Scouts, please feel free to contact the Levensten Law Firm for a free, confidential case evaluation.