E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSSANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- A judge has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to hand over all confidential files detailing allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders nationwide.
According to The Los Angeles Times, a Santa Barbara judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by the family of a California boy molested by his troop leader said the Irving, Texas-based organization must turn over the most recent 20 years' worth of records by Feb. 24.
Known as "ineligible volunteer files," the documents are intended to keep those accused of misconduct out of the Scouts.
Scout officials dispute that the files have been used to conceal abuse.
"These files exist solely to keep out individuals whose actions are inconsistent with the standards of Scouting, and Scouts are safer because of them," Deron Smith, public relations director of Boy Scouts of America, told the Times.
The trial is scheduled for April, nearly five years after the boy, then 13, was molested by volunteer troop leader Al Stein in Santa Barbara County. Stein pleaded no contest in 2009 and is in prison.
The mother of teen says her child suffers to this day.
"Stein used his 450 pounds to pin the boy with sufficient force to cause bruising, ripped the boy's pants down to the point the boy suffered a laceration at his belt line, and then fondled the boy's genitals while commenting on them," according to the lawsuit.
When the boy told his mother about the abuse, she called the Scouts. She told the Times she called the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department after a local Scouts executive told her to not call police.
"He said that wasn't necessary, because the Scouts do their own internal investigation," the mother told the Times. Her name is being withheld to protect her son's identity. "I thought that was really weird.... I thought it was really important to call the sheriff right away."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
Leave a Comment:
LGBT's,GLAAD,NAMBLA, push hard to be teachers,scout leaders,clergy and adoption
Being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans gendered has very little to do with child molesting. As little as being straight does. Some child molesters/rapists prefer children of the same sex some prefer children of the opposite sex. Many child molesters are married men and women. Using you logic marriage causes child molesting.
Spin it all you want, the American Psychological Association has noted that heterosexual child molesters are far more common. Your going after an unrelated group does nothing to invalidate that an organization that prides itself on "traditional values" and bans gays is full of child molesters and has a leadership that works to cover up abuse. It's obvious who's morally bankrupt here.
A 1994 study, led by Carole Jenny of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, surveyed 269 cases of children who were sexually molested by adults. In 82 percent of cases, the alleged offender was a heterosexual partner of a close relative of the child, the researchers reported in the journal Pediatrics. In only two out of 269 cases, the offender was identified as being gay or lesbian. A pedophile is a pedophile no mater straight or LGBT.
Meltdown....that makes no sense.
meltdown is just looking for any excuse to rant about homosexuals, whether the rant is based in reality or not. That is what desperate, hateful people tend to do.
Well, they don't have any unions to blame this time.
A 450 pound role model???????
A homosexual role model? The Boy Scouts know enough to write rules against male homosexuals from being in a position of molestation power over young boys.
Frankly, the genders involved are irrelevant.
I would find it no more or less appalling if a 450-pound adult woman acted similarly with a 13-year-old boy, or a 450-pound adult man did so with a young girl. Would you? Would it make any difference legally? Of course not, so let's keep our eye on the ball here.
What I took away from the article's description of the incident is that an adult used a position of trust and a considerable weight advantage to subdue and molest a 13-year-old. Full stop. Male, female, whatever -- I don't care. It was predatory, immoral, illegal, and truth be told, sounds closer to rape than molestation to me.
No need to try to use this incident to try to propagate your own hatred for gay men. The vast, vast majority of them would never do such a thing, just as the vast majority of straight men don't go around raping teenage girls.
To Vincent Denali:
It is people like you, who want to keep their heads in the sand an pretend that homosexuality correlates with pedophilia, that keep putting our kids in danger. Homo/hetero sexuality has nothing to do with pedophilia. In fact most pedophiles are white, straight men who are married and hide their attraction to children. Pedos are attracted to children because of the difference in power, much like a rapist. This pedophile had access to children. Perhaps they should start by giving an MMPI to every Scout leader instead of worrying about what kind of ADULTS they are attracted to. If they are not pedophiles then what dies it matter if they are hetero/homo sexual? If you are not attracted to children, then you are not attracted to children... PERIOD!
Anybody tells you it is not necessary to call the police after a crime as been committed is, in my opinion, hiding other crimes that have been committed.
I wish a judge would order the vatican to do the same thing. Where are our courageous judges.....
As an Eagle Scout and criminal defense attorney, I have to agree that it is suspicious to the highest degree when a representative of an institution counsels an individual not to contact the police when a crime has been committed.
GOOD!!! The Boys Scouts are not outside the law. Nobody is outside the law. Predators of children, old people and innocents are a cancer at the very fabric of society when you have 'leaders' who could so easily pull the trigger and murder hundreds of thousands of people. and this has been going on too long within our government as our very foundation has been shaken and molded, and manipulated and skewed to resemble a horrible situation which has occurred in the past. Ron Paul is the MAN to turn this around, and you wait, you see, what kind of reality happens when you have GOOD People leading! Progress, Hope, Fulfillment, and a promise of one's true life purpose be fulfilled. You will see individuals and families and communities and groups strengthen and mirror this goodness. It has taken 40 years to reach this point of deterioration, and we are now at a time, to turn it back around, once and for all. For once true goodness is firmly entrenched in the earth, nothing can stop it and it will flourish. Now is that time.
Ron Paul?!
I will also say Ron Paul? and also old people? what gives ?
Sadly, this brings back memories of the 'C' Church and the cover ups they used, so many times, over the years. The only way to 'fix' the problem is let the light in. The bright light of exposure, drag the pedophiles into the light. Prosecute them and make the Scouts pay.
Make the Scouts pay!?
We need this Judge to order Eric Holder to turn over all the documents he has on Operation Fast and Furious and now, Operation White Gun. Think F&F was bad. Look up White Gun ... Hint - it involves selling a tank ...
I hope there is no ulterior motive to this, like trying to put the Scouts out of business by opening the way for lawsuits by those on its "Do Not Hire" list.
In our country,sometimes "wrong" equals "right"...and viceversa.
First of all BSA has the best program for perventing this kind of abuse as judged by all national and world groups. No program is foolproof. I think this comment "do not call the police was taken out of context" Scouts do their own investigation and also call police at the same time. It might surprise people but scouts also have a coed program called venture scouts which is for 14 to 18 year old girls and boys.The biggest problem scouts have right now is parental involment, more and more parents want Boy Scouts of America to be their baby sitters. This troop should have had "parents two deep instead of helpful volunteers". That is the rule two adults for every ten kids. No adult interacts with a scout out of sight of another adult.I doubt these accusations are true someone is looking for a payday but rest assured BSA and any and all law enforcement will be utilized to determine the truth.
That may be the case now, but it has not always been the case, just in the past few years a Boy Scout leader was arrested for soliciting boys online, AND he is HIV positive...he was on bail and awaiting trial when he was caught with another teen...and my ex-husband was sexually abused by an assistant leader on a camping trip, he is 49, so this has been going on for years, with the BSA behaving in a similiar manner to the Catholic Church, covering up rather than reporting and investigating.
Ya, and doing internal "investigation" is like the Vatican doing "internal" investigations. That is why this organization is as riddle with sex abuse as any other.
Which is why the judge as ordered all records be turned over to REAL investigators.
These things that are called human who abuse children the weakest in society, when found out and guilty without any doubt need to be executed without mercy, let them plead their case with the Almighty. It is time to stop allowing the liberal left destroy America. Elect Rick Santorum and pray he is not a liar like Obama. If he does what he says he will do and the house and senate are in his favor, then I believe he will turn this country around, but the first thing that needs to be done is to restore morality back into our sociaty, get rid of roe v wade and make homosexuality against the law. I realise that this devient life style will never be eradicated but we at least can send them back into the sewer. I have a disdain for all politicians and believe they are all corrupt to the bone with a few exceptions. This also includes state and local politicians.
Isn't Santorum a Catholic? and doesn't the largest child sexual abuse scandal involve the Catholic Church, hundreds of abusers and thousands of victims that was covered up over the course of decades if not centuries?
Isn't Santorum a Republican? didn't the Republican party try to cover-up mark Foley's perverted emails to underage boys? Wasn't Foley on nearly every committee in congress that dealt with missing and exploited children?
And you want to hand the safety of our children over to these people? Hmm I wonder whats in your crawl space?
Jerry, 99% of child molestations are committed by people not considered to be gay, and most are committed by those people who lead very outwardly conservative lifestlyes, so possibly it is the repression of normal sexual urges by wingnuts that causes them to force themselves on defenseless children.
So in your tiny little head, Jerry, if the United States simply illegalizes abortions and homosexuality, the country will instantly transform into a MORAL NATION? Really? Wow. I almost wish I could have such a profoundly ignorant and simplistic world view.
Thinkforyourself: Ignore Jerry, he sounds like a self-loathing closet case to me!
jerry, you are missing a screw somewhere, but who knows what part of your brain its missing from, I'd guess the rational part. Deviant lifestyle, the only deviant lifestyle is your lifestyle, a b.b. brain sized individual who thinks a bible thumping dimwit like santurdumb can fix this country, well jerry your little wacked out brain can't and won't understand that homosexuality is as normal as heterosexuality and always has been. It''s my wish that everyone that thinks as moronic as you do would go back to the cesspools they crawled out of and stay there. Have a bad day idiot. Oh and by the way jerry take a good, good look in the mirror and maybe you will see something starring back at you you don't want others to know about.
I truly hate to hear of this type of incident. First and foremost, because of the needless pain and violence inflicted on this 14 year old young man who looked to Scouting for fun and a framework to grow with. As a Scout leader volunteer, it pains me that this sick, ethically reprehensible rapist was in a leadership position where he could perpetrate this crime. EVERY Scout leader is required to take Youth Protection Training and follow guidelines that do NOT allow any leader to be alone, one on one, with a boy. There is supposed to always be two deep leadership at all times to prevent this sort of sickening criminal behavior. Also, each leader application goes through a criminal background check that disallows anyone as a leader who does not come up clean. As always seems to be the case, the actions of a small number poison the perceptions of many as to the good that Scouting can do. Sometimes the wolves come in sheeps clothing and you don't know until after the fact. Their records are clean and they seem to want to do the right thing.
If the Scout Executive in their area tried to cover this up (and I agree there may be more facts to this than the article reports) then I believe that the individual should also bear responsibility for their actions as well. This is NOT what is taught at leadership level, and it is made very clear that cases of abuse or incidents need to involve the proper authorities and not just be hushed up by the BSA. This article is a good example of why that is the case.
Scouting, like the Catholic Church, or YMCA, or school systems have to always be vigilant in doing their absolute best in making sure these types of incidents are prevented. Unfortunately, the situation is very similar to what Dillinger replied when asked why he robbed banks: "Because that is where the money is." The reason that sick individuals seek out these organizations is "That is where the boys are." I have two boys myself, 11 and 7. Both great kids. As a father to my sons and a leader to the other boys in our Troop and Pack, I owe it to them to not only enforce the two deep leadership myself at all times, but to make sure the other leaders don't get lax about following the rules; gently reminding them that this protects the boys and can also protect their own reputation.
I feel a bit torn about the release of the records. Overall it may be a good thing, but also keep in mind that there have been incidents where a boy, due to spite or other reasons, have falsely accused a good man of something like this. If this gets noted, I can see them very well being pulled from their leadership position and a report being filed. I hope this does not turn into a "guilty until proven otherwise" media fest. I still think the need for protecting these boys outweighs all the considerations, but I can see this turning ugly for some that were wrongly accused.
To the family and young man who were victimized by this sick, so-called leader, I hope that time begins to heal this wound. As a parent I have only an inkling of the pain you are going through and the ache you feel at the treatment and violation your son received. I imagine the anger and despair and grief I would feel if my son had to endure what your son did. Scouting aside, and as inadequate as these words seem to me as I type them, I sincerely wish the best for your son going forward and that these dark times lead to his much brighter future.
Whatever abnormality causes"liberal sexuality" I believe will one day found to be very similar to pederasty.It won't be proffered however,so maybe we'll never know.
What is up with people on here thinking that homosexuality leads to child molest? Very often, people who molest children of their same gender are not in fact gay and it's a control issue or they're acting out some abuse that was enacted on them as children. In fact, very few truly homosexual people are child molesters and often sincerely love kids and would never harm them.
It's just that deviants like to hide in power positions where their motivations are unlikely to be questioned. I agree that sunlight is the best disinfectant; as these cases are brought to light more and more, such things are less likely to recur.
Wonder how many cockroaches will scamper out of that file when it sees the light of day?
jerry, the wacko, will certainly be one of the cockroaches.
Sorry folks, being Queer is not normal and never will be---plain and simple----start your own country and see what happens,be like a bunch of donkeys, unproductive.