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$18.5 million in punitive damages!
$18.5 million in punitive damages!
July 8, 2010
Original Story Date: April 24, 2010 (9:17 AM - PDT)
(Plaintiff Kerry Lewis (pictured left) smiles during a news conference in May 2010, after a jury ordered the Boy Scouts of America to pay $18.5 million to Lewis, who was sexually abused by a former assistant Scoutmaster.) PORTLAND, Ore. (WLSB) — An Oregon jury's decision to award a man $18.5 million in punitive damages in his case against the Boy Scouts of America will likely be the first of many financial hits the Scouts will take as it prepares to defend itself against a series of sex abuse lawsuits. The jury ordered the Scouts to make the payment to Kerry Lewis, the victim of sex abuse by a former assistant Scoutmaster in Portland in the early 1980s. The case was the first of six filed against the Boy Scouts in the same court in Oregon, with at least one other separate case pending. If mediation fails to settle the other cases, they also could go to trial. Lawyers for Lewis had asked the jury to award at least $25 million to punish the Boy Scouts for what the jury had already agreed in the first phase of the trial was reckless and outrageous conduct. They also noted the Boy Scouts had never apologized to Lewis, who said at a news conference that the verdict shows that "big corporations can't be above the law." Lewis added that an apology "would mean something to me, but I'm not expecting it."The jury decided on April 13, 2010 that the Boy Scouts were negligent for allowing former assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes to associate with Scouts, including Lewis, after Dykes admitted to a Scouts official in 1983 that he had molested 17 boys. The jury awarded Lewis $1.4 million in compensatory damages with that verdict and agreed the Boy Scouts were liable for punitive damages to be determined in the second phase of the trial that ended Thursday.
Scouts officials declined to comment on details of the case because other cases are pending, but issued a statement saying it maintains a "rigorous" system to screen Scout leaders. "The Boy Scouts of America has always stood against child abuse of any kind," it said. The verdict came as the Boy Scouts mark their centennial.
For more than a month, dueling experts and a parade of witnesses from both sides wove together a picture of an organization that compiled secret files on child molesters for nearly the entire century it has been in existence. The "ineligible volunteer" files, nicknamed the "perversion files," are kept under lock and key at Scouts headquarters, now in Irving, Texas, a practice that began back in the 1920s. The Scouts said the files were put to good use quietly keeping molesters out of the organization for all those years. But Lewis' attorneys argued that the Scout should have brought the files out into the open decades ago. After an Oregon Supreme Court ruling, the jury was permitted to see about 1,000 of the files from 1965-85.
In determining the award, the jury was allowed to consider the wealth of the Boy Scouts to decide the amount of punitive damages. Kelly Clark and Paul Mones, the attorneys for Lewis, told them the Boy Scouts were nearly a $1 billion corporation that could well afford punitive damages intended to deter them from similar conduct in the future. The amount of the damages surprised Patrick Boyle, editor of the Youth Today newspaper and author of a book about sex abuse within the Scouts. "That's a lot of money. This is by far the biggest award against the Scouts for sex abuse, probably by several times," Boyle said. The Scouts have said they plan to appeal Friday's decision, and 60% of any punitive damages they finally pay in the case will go to the Oregon crime victims fund under state law.
Because the Boy Scouts have settled some lawsuits out of court, it is difficult to say where the total awards imposed by the Portland jury rank with those of the past. In a 1987 sex abuse case, an Oregon jury awarded more than $4 million to the victim, including $2 million in punitive damages against the Scouts that were thrown out when the case was appealed. A jury in San Bernardino, Calif., awarded $3.75 million to three sex abuse victims in 1991. Boyle said from 1984 through 1992, the Scouts were sued at least 60 times for alleged sex abuse with settlements and judgments totaling more than $16 million.
The Pedo-Files!
Original Story Date: March 24, 2010 (10:51 PM - PDT)
PORTLAND, Oregon (WLSB) — A psychologist testifying in a $14 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America says the organization put boys at risk by hiding information about child molesters among troop leaders. Gary Schoener, a national expert on child sex abuse, told a jury in Portland on Wednesday that confidential files the Boy Scouts kept on suspected abusers from 1965-1984 were the deepest and most complete information about pedophiles then available in the country. He said the organization showed a reckless indifference by not sharing the information with parents and authorities. Attorneys for the Boy Scouts of America say the organization kept files on suspected molesters to protect children.
Original Story Date: March 19, 2010 (08:54 AM - PDT)
(Relying on about 1,000 confidential Boy Scouts of America files, the lawyer for a man sexually abused in the 1980s by Timur Dykes, a Scout leader (pictured left) who later admitted to being a serial molester, claims the organization has covered up abuse for decades.) Confidential files from the Boy Scouts of America show that the organization knew of at least 1,000 suspected child molesters from 1965 to 1985 and tried to hush it up, an attorney in a sexual abuse lawsuit charges.The accusations came in the opening day Wednesday of a $14 million civil suit in Portland, Ore., brought by the victim of a man who confessed to Scout leaders that he had molested 17 Scouts but was allowed to continue participating in Scouting activities, according to Corrupt Justice™ reports. The Boy Scouts had fought to keep the files confidential, but the state Supreme Court rejected their argument that opening them could damage the lives and reputations of people not a party to the lawsuit, the Associated Press says. Most previous cases were settled out of court, which kept the files from being introduced at a trial.
The attorney for the victim, charged that the organization knew it had pedophiles, but allowed a local assistant Scoutmaster, Timur Dykes, who had pleaded guilt to sexual abuse charges, and others other to continue working with boys.
The Boy Scouts of America attorney argued that sexual abuse of children isn't specific to the Scouts, The Oregonian writes. He also said child molesters are difficult to track and that the organization kept confidential files on them in an effort to protect children.
An attorney for the Cascade Pacific Council, which is also being sued, said that the head of the local group "acted immediately" to inform parents about Dykes.
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