Judge orders Boy Scouts to turn over confidential files in Calif. sex abuse case

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Boy Scouts Of America logo

/ AP

(CBS/AP) SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by the family of a California boy molested by his troop leader in 2007 has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to hand over confidential files detailing allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders around the nation.

The Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge said last month that the organization must turn over the last 20 years' worth of records by Feb. 24, with victims' names removed, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Known as "ineligible volunteer files," the documents are intended to keep those accused of misconduct out of Scouting. Scouts officials have resisted releasing them and won't discuss their contents, citing the privacy rights of victims and the fact that many files are based on unproven allegations.

The officials deny that the files have been used to conceal sexual abuse.

The upcoming trial is scheduled to begin in April, nearly five years after the boy, then 13, was allegedly molested by volunteer troop leader Al Stein at a Boy Scouts Christmas tree sale. Stein pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment in 2009 and was sentenced to two years in prison.

The victim's mother claims that David Tate, then the Los Padres Council Scout executive, asked her not to call police after she reported her son's claim of abuse.

"He said that wasn't necessary, because the Scouts do their own internal investigation," said the woman, whose name was withheld. "I thought that was really weird... I thought it was really important to call the sheriff right away."

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, contends the Scouts knew or should have known that Stein had put the boy at risk, and cites Tate's reluctance to call police as evidence of an effort to conceal widespread sexual abuse.

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by angelofurnightmare February 21, 2012 10:36 AM EST

I don't care what anyone says...it doesn't matter who is accused the police should ALWAYS be called no matter what kind of abuse is alleged

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by AnAnimal2 February 23, 2012 2:20 AM EST: Angelo ,
You are so right . I feel the most guilty to this day that I myself had faith, that the Boy Scouts of America would do the right thing to protect the Children in there organization . What I saw was a cover-up on the Abuse complaints that were reported to them. NEVER TRUST THE BSA TO POLICE THEIR OWN, IT JUST WILL NOT HAPPEN. They are more interested in keeping their image spotless rather than protecting a child from Abuse Reports they receive.
I SHOULD HAVE CALLED THE POLICE MYSELF ,AND TO THIS DAY I FEEL GUILTY BECAUSE I TRUSTED THE BSA TO TAKE ACTION AND REMOVE THAT LEADER SO THEY COULD PROTECT THE CHILDREN IN THE PROGRAM.
I SHOULD HAVE CALLED THE POLICE AND REPORTED IT . I WAS WRONG FOR TRUSTING THEM. AND I feel guilty that I did not report it to the Police.
One thing I did do was at my last committee meeting at the Church for the troop was I stood up and confronted the ScoutMaster. I looked at him and said " If I ever hear anything about you mistreating a child I will be back and I will personally KICK THE CRAP OUT OF YOU " He turned to me and said " YOUR STATEMENT WAS UNCALLED FOR " , My reply was no it wasn't , it was mild compared to what I am going to do to you , if you ever physically or verbally abuse a child , I give you my word I WILL BE BACK TO BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU " . " THEN YOU WILL SEE WHAT IT IS LIKE AND FEELS LIKE WHEN SOMEONE DOES TO YOU WHAT YOU DO TO A CHILD " " And If you don't believe me ,God help you when I find out , because I will be back."
That whole Committee went dead silent when I said what I did. NOt one of the 16 adults there ever said a word. Not even the Committee Chairman , who by the way was a Lawyer. I guess they all wanted to say something to him because they all knew what I said was true ,I was just the only one that had the courage to confront him and bring it all out in the open.
Today thinking of what I said to that so called Adult , I could have been arrested for making that threat had he called the Police and report me. But not one of those people, the Lawyer or the Scoutmaster himself , reported me. I guess they all realized that had anyone of them called the police , the whole story would have come out and they would all be guilty of a cover up.Even the WIMP Lawyer could have been disbarred for allowing Abuse to go on.
To this day I still feel guilty . I trusted the BSA to police their own and handle it , but they didn't .It was covered up. BUt my threat worked as I never heard from any of the kids or Adults about anymore abuse.
BUT I SHOULD HAVE CALLED THE POLICE , I WAS WRONG IN NOT CALLING THE POLICE. No Immature So Called Adult has the right to abuse a child wether they be their own or someone else's Child. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO HURT A CHILD. And the Chairman , The Lawyer ,A person who should have know better than anyone else that the law was being broken . So that low class lawyer himself should have been dis-barred for knowingly allowing the abuse of a child.
WHEN IN DOUBT , CALL THE POLICE. ALL CHILDREN NEED TO BE PROTECTED FROM PEOPLE LIKE THAT SCOUTMASTER , AND THE LAWYER WHO HAD KNOWLEDGE OF THE INCIDENTS , BUT AS CHAIRMEN OF THE TROOP COMMITTEE WAS JUST AS GUILTY. AS HE ALLOWED AND PUT TOGETHER THE COVER-UP, TO PROTECT HIMSELF. THE SILENCE OF THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND THE LAWYER/ CHAIRMAN TO MY THREATS THAT NIGHT PROVED TO ME THEY ALL KNEW I WAS RIGHT. Otherwise I should have been turned over to the Police for making terroristic threats, But I was not turned into the Police by the Committee Chair/ Lawyer , the Leader or anyone else on the Committee. That right there says a lot about all those Adult there that night
CALL THE POLICE, CALL THEM SO NO CHILD IS EVER ABUSED. I still feel bad that I did not call the Police and report everything . I SHOULD HAVE. BUT I TRUSTED THE BSA OFFICIALS TO TAKE ACTION. AND THEY NEVER DID.
One problem I had was these incidents occurred in different Localities , towns ,counties , so the reports would have had to be made in each individual Localities. That is mainly why I reported it to the BSA Officials they could handle it all themselves because they had a duty to take action . I AM SORRY FOR GIVING THE LAST PARAGRAPH AS MY JUSTIFICATION FOR MY NOT CALLING THE POLICE. I AM ASHAMED OF EVEN THINKING ABOUT USING THAT AS MY EXCUSE. I AM SORRY. AND ASHAMED FOR EVEN MAKING AN EXCUSE LIKE THAT . IT WAS A CHILD AND IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPORTED NO MATTER WHERE IT OCCURRED.
WHEN EVER IN DOUBT CALL THE POLICE AND REPORT IT. OUR YOUTH NEED TO BE PROTECTED AGAINST ADULTS WHO ABUSE THEM. IF IT IS NOT REPORTED IT WILL CONTINUE .
CALL THE POLICE

by ISurvived February 21, 2012 9:11 AM EST

Yes, lets protect the scout leader - who cares about the victims! Infuriating!!!

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by AnAnimal2 February 23, 2012 2:37 AM EST: HI , ISURVIVED ,
Your Right . The way things go it seems that they are protecting the Scoutmaster and covering it up so there is not black mark against the BSA themselves. BSA will cover it up and then hope it goes away. The BSA is guilty .
Your right who cares about the victim , it sure as hell is not the BSA . And it is infuriating that a child was abused and the BSA Officials who are supposed to protect those children allowed it to go on and covered it up. WE SHOULD ALL BE THERE FOR A CHILD WETHER THEY BE OUR OWN CHILDREN OR CHILDREN OF OTHERS . There is no excuse for not protecting a child from an Adult who abuses them. It is wrong and VERY INFURIATING THAT A CHILD CAN BE ABUSED AND IT GOES UNREPORTED , AND THEN COVERED UP . CALL THE POLICE NO MATTER WHAT SO AT LEAST THEY CAN INVESTIGATE. THE BSA IS NOT CAPABLE OF POLICING THEMSELVES AND PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN AS THEY SHOULD BE.
What does it take for the BSA Officials to protect a child ? Do they finally enforce their own protection policies and report things when it is too late ? When a childs life is lost? SHAME ON THE BSA AND THEIR IN HOUSE INVESTIGATIONS , WHICH ALLOWS THEM TO FILE THE REPORTS AWAY AND CONVEINENTLY LOOSE THE REPORTS.


by AnAnimal2 February 21, 2012 2:16 AM EST: This story does not surprise me. I have seen in Scouting over a 30 + year period of being a volunteer many instances of Ill advised Behavior on both the National and Local Level in Scouting. The Comment by the Council Chairman does not surprise me at all because for years scouting has tried to " HANDLE THINGS INTERNALLY " as they call it .where it goes from there is usually nowhere.
I have seen cases of actual physical abuse by leaders ,one where the leader a 40 + year old male grab a scout 14 years old around the neck and shake the kid for talking in line. The Leader was a man who only wanted certain " Scouts in his troops " the others who he deemed unworthy would be systematically weeded out with both physical and verbal abuse that would get so bad the young boy would not want to show up. Many of the parents never knew there child was being abused in this way ,they only knew the kids did not like the Cub Master/ Scout Master. So they did not want to go back to the meetings or activities because of the abusive behavior that went on when the child was there.
Even after reports were made about him on the Local and National Level nothing was ever done.It was just hidden and BSA almost acted as there was never ever a report about this leader. IN ALL CASES THE ADULT OR PARENT WHO REPORTED IT WAS PRETTY MUCH BLACK LISTED IN SCOUTING SO THEY COULD NOT BE LEADERS IN THE PROGRAM.
The shame of this behavior continued in the sponsoring institution an church the female Minister, also had received reports of the abuse and she allowed the Male leader to stay on because she liked him and he would sweet talk her.I personally know that reports were made, both written ,and phone calls to the local Council Chief exec. to report it. And nothing was done to remove him. The Adult went even farther when the local council did not act and they called and wrote to the National Headquarters in Texas , and nothing was ever done at that level.
The same Church and the same Minister also had an Explorer Post and Venture Crew. What happened with that was they went on weekend trips and One of the leaders who had his teenage boys in the program ,allowed coed sleeping arrangements in the tents with his son and a girl. It was reported to the local council and the girls parents , the only action was by the girls mother who gave her a two week suspension of the girl after her parents were notified . Nothing to the leader /parent of the boy or the Boy Himself. Even the minister knew.
On another summer trip , the Venture Crew went away for two weeks .What happened there were unbelievable events.The Adults got drunk every night and on one night in front of the kids there was a out and out brawl between the drunk adults.It ended up quite frightening to the kids. Also the same leader allowed the sleeping arrangements to be decided by the kids.The same Leaders son chose the room with the queen size bed for his and the same girl as in the first incident . The Leader allowed this behavior to continue .
It got so bad that one of the boys walked off and they left him alone to fend for himself as they went off into town .This 16 year old boy was left and what went on next was a close call for the 16 year old .At 2:00am still left alone to wait , some older man in a car pulled up and tried to coerce the 16 year old into his car. The Boy thank God was smart enough to run and hide and waited for the rest of the group to return.
What happened? The Church dissolved the Youth Group. But the LEADER APPLIED FOR AND WAS GIVEN A CHARTER FOR ANOTHER VENTURE CREW WITH ANOTHER SPONSOR.
Scouting is a great program and I believe in Scouting , but you do have some BAD APPLES. If you suspect or see something report it to the Police otherwise, nothing may be done and it could turn tragic.; Reply to this comment