Trial opens; Boy Scouts accused of hiding pedophiles

[Ursus]

The Oregonian
Trial opens in Portland, with Boy Scouts accused of hiding pedophiles
By Aimee Green, The Oregonian
March 17, 2010, 9:13PM


Attorney Kelly Clark, who represents a 37-year-old man who as a boy was sexually abused by an assistant Scoutmaster, told Multnomah County jurors Wednesday: "You will see a different face of the Boy Scouts of America" in coming weeks.
BRENT WOJAHN/THE OREGONIAN

A civil trial that opened Wednesday in Portland will show that the Boy Scouts of America knew it had child molesters in its leadership for decades but kept the problem quiet, according to an attorney for one of the victims.

The case, expected to attract national attention, centers on a Portland man who confessed to Scout leaders that he had molested 17 Scouts but was allowed to continue joining boys in Scouting activities.

On a broader scale, the case is one of the first to bring into open court hundreds of confidential files that the 100-year-old organization kept on Scout leaders and others suspected of sexually abusing boys. Though the Scouts, based in Texas, have been sued dozens of times over allegations of sexual abuse, most cases have been settled out of court, keeping files from becoming public.

Patrick Boyle, the Washington, D.C.-based author of "Scout's Honor: Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution," said Wednesday that this case may be only the second time such files have been used in a trial.

"It's very embarrassing to them," Boyle said.

The case that opened Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court was brought by Kelly Clark, a Portland attorney who specializes in child sex abuse cases, and involves a former assistant Scoutmaster named Timur Dykes. The lawsuit, brought by a victim of Dykes listed in court documents by the pseudonym Jack Doe, seeks at least $14 million from the Boy Scouts of America and the Cascade Pacific Council in Oregon.

The Scouts, Clark said in opening statements, knew it had  pedophiles in its organization yet allowed Dykes and others to continue to associate with its members. He held up file folder after file folder from Boy Scout headquarters that he said proves the organization knew of at least 1,000 suspected child molesters from 1965 to 1985.

"Those decisions led naturally, predictably and foreseeably to the abuse of boys like" my client, he said.

Attorneys for the two Scouting organizations said in their opening statements that their clients weren't at fault.

Boy Scouts of America attorney Charles T. Smith said he would call experts who would testify that sexual abuse of children wasn't a problem specific to the Scouts but one that occurs throughout society. He also told jurors that child molesters are difficult to track and that the organization kept confidential files on them in an effort to protect children.

"These people move," Smith said. "They go from state to state. And they change their names or their birth dates or they do something to try to slip back in."

The trial, expected to last four weeks, focuses on Doe, who was a Boy Scout when he was abused by Dykes in the 1980s. The Oregonian is not naming Doe, now 37, because he is a victim of sex abuse.

According to Clark, Dykes was 25 when he met a 9-year-old Doe in 1981. Later, Doe joined a Southeast Portland Scout troop where Dykes was an assistant Scoutmaster. The troop met at a building, in the 9900 block of Southeast Caruthers Street, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The boys also often went to Dykes' apartment to work on merit badges or spend the night, with their parents' approval, Clark told jurors.

"All of the parents trusted Timur Dykes because he was a Scout leader," Clark said.

The apartment, Clark said, was like a playground for boys.

"He had ferrets," Clark said. "He had snakes, including a boa constrictor. ... He had a knife collection. He gave (Doe) french fries for breakfast on a regular basis."

In January 1983, the mother of a Scout who said he had been molested by Dykes went to Gordon McEwen, a Mormon bishop who headed the local Scouting program, Clark said. McEwen confronted Dykes, who confessed to abusing 17 Scouts.

Nonetheless, Dykes was allowed to continue to spend time with the boys in the program, Clark said. McEwen contacted the parents of the 17 Scouts but "did nothing to warn the other parents of boys within Timur Dykes' reach and grasp," Clark said.

Dykes was arrested that year on accusations of molesting boys. He pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children. Yet, Clark said, he continued Scouting activities.

After his confession, Dykes molested Doe at least six times, Clark said. Four times, Doe awoke to discover he was on top of Dykes, who was aroused. Another time, Dykes pulled Doe's hand into his shorts. During a recent deposition, Dykes admitted abusing Doe.

In July 1984, police pulled over Dykes while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip. Police discovered his 1983 conviction and arrested him. Doe's parents learned of Dyke's history and, alarmed, asked their son if he had been a victim.

"To protect his parents, he said, 'No, Timur never touched me,'" Clark said. But the abuse deeply disturbed Doe, who started getting bad grades, using drugs and getting in trouble with the law, Clark said. Today, he suffers from depression, nightmares and flashbacks, Clark said.

Clark is also representing seven other victims of Dykes in lawsuits against the Boy Scouts. Those plaintiffs also sought damages from the Mormon church, and the church settled.

Paul Xochihua, an attorney for the Cascade Pacific Council, painted a much different picture. He disagreed with how Clark characterized McEwen's response to Dykes' confession, saying McEwen cooperated with a police investigation. Police also knew of McEwen's plan to contact the parents of the abused children, he said.

"He will say he acted immediately," Xochihua said.

Smith, the attorney for the Boy Scouts of America, said neither the local nor national organization was directly involved in the operation of Doe's troop. That fell to the Mormon church. But, Smith told jurors, "Boy Scouts of America is not here to blame this on the church. Those decisions will be up to you."

Boyle, the author, said Smith's argument is one he's heard before.

"'We don't run the local troop. We don't choose the leaders,'" Boyle said. That argument has been successful in the past, he said. What's more, Boyle said, the public has a lot of good will toward the Scouts.

"People are unwilling to punish the Boy Scouts," Boyle said. "I draw a distinction with the Catholic Church, because a lot of people don't like the Catholic Church."

-- Aimee Green


© 2010 Oregon Live LLC. All Rights Reserved

[Ursus]

Sidebar to the above article:


Timur Dykes

A pedophile's history

• Who: Timur Dykes, 53

• Victims: Confessed to or was convicted of molesting more than 20 boys, most of them Boy Scouts.

• First conviction: Arrested in 1983 on accusations of molesting several boys. Pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree sexual abuse and received probation.

• Second conviction: Charged in 1985 with molesting boys. Pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse and sexual penetration with a foreign object. His sentence is unclear.

• Third conviction: Found guilty in 1994 after a nine-day trial in which several boys said he molested them. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison but was released in 2005.

• Today: A registered sex offender and on post-prison supervision until 2013. Listed as a transient living at Southwest First Avenue and Burnside Street.

© 2010 Oregon Live LLC. All Rights Reserved

[Ursus]

The New York Times
Files Logging Scout Abuse Are a Focus in Civil Trial
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
Published: March 17, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. — Files kept secret for decades that detail hundreds of claims of child sexual abuse by troop leaders of the Boy Scouts of America are at the center of a civil court case that began here Wednesday.

Lawyers for a victim say the files show a centralized national effort to conceal abuse while lawyers for the Boy Scouts say the files demonstrate proactive efforts to stop it. The group has acknowledged that abuse occurred.

The case, a lawsuit brought by a man who was abused by a scout leader in Oregon in the early 1980s, seeks $4 million in damages for the victim, who was about 12 at the time. Timur Dykes, a former scout leader and convicted pedophile, has admitted to abusing the boy, who is now 37.

Scout leaders have been found guilty of sexual abuse crimes in various cases across the country for more than two decades.

On Wednesday, lawyers for the plaintiff said in court that they would make a broader case, bolstered by the recent release of about 1,000 individual files kept by the Boy Scouts of America from 1965 to 1984. The lawyers said they would argue that the national group was aware of abusive leaders across the country, including Mr. Dykes, and frequently took no action to prevent more abuse.

"The Boy Scouts of America actually set back the child abuse prevention movement in this country, held it back, because of their secrecy," Kelly Clark, a lawyer for the plaintiff, said in opening arguments here.

Parts of the files have emerged in other lawsuits, and officials with the Boy Scouts, based in Irving, Tex., have previously acknowledged concealing some abuse. But in court on Wednesday, Chuck Smith, a lawyer for the Boy Scouts, said the files — sometimes called "the red flag file" or the "confidential files" — showed that the group had been ahead of national trends in tracking abuse, and he said the files had been kept confidential only to protect victims.

"We do not produce them willingly or voluntarily for a very good reason until by a court order," Mr. Smith said in opening arguments.

Mr. Clark and Paul Mones, the other lead plaintiff's lawyer, have led several high-profile child abuse cases, including against the Boy Scouts, the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mr. Clark said the files, which were not made public on Wednesday, showed that national and regional scout leaders had allowed troop leaders and volunteers to work with scouts for years after complaints arose that they had abused children, sometimes even after they had been convicted of sexual abuse. He said evidence would show claims of abuse as early as the 1920s.

In a statement, Deron Smith, the group's national spokesman, said the Boy Scouts of America had aggressively addressed the issue of abuse. "Unfortunately, child abuse is a societal problem, and there is no fail-safe method for screening out abusers," the statement said. "However, the B.S.A. has some of the oldest and most respected youth protection measures of any youth-serving organization."

The jury trial, in Multnomah County Circuit Court, is expected to last more than a week.

A version of this article appeared in print on March 18, 2010, on page A21 of the New York edition.


Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

[Ursus]

Los Angeles Times
Oregon lawsuit claims Boy Scouts sex abuse coverup
Associated Press
March 19, 2010 | 10:38 a.m.

PORTLAND, Oregon - The Boy Scouts of America has long kept an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years.

The "perversion files," a nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the public, but that could all change in the coming weeks in an Oregon courtroom.

The lawyer for a man who was molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began Wednesday. The lawyer says the files show how the Boy Scouts have covered up abuse for decades.

The trial is significant because the files could offer a rare window into how the Boy Scouts have responded to sex abuse by Scout leaders. The only other time the documents are believed to have been presented at a trial was in the 1980s in Virginia.

At the start of the Oregon trial, attorney Kelly Clark recited the Boy Scout oath and the promise to obey Scout law to be "trustworthy." Then he presented six boxes of documents that he said will show "how the Boy Scouts of America broke that oath."

He held up file folder after file folder he said contained reports of abuse from around the country, telling the jury the efforts to keep them secret may have actually set back efforts to prevent child abuse nationally.

"The Boy Scouts of America ignored clear warning signs that Boy Scouts were being abused," Clark said.

Charles Smith, attorney for the national Boy Scouts, said in his own opening statement the files were kept under wraps because they "were replete with confidential information."

Smith told the jury the files helped national scouting leaders weed out sex offenders, especially repeat offenders who may have changed names or moved in order to join another local scouting organization.

"They were trying to do the right thing by trying to track these folks," Smith said.

Clark is seeking $14 million in damages on behalf of a 37-year-old man who was sexually molested in the early 1980s in Portland by an assistant Scoutmaster, Timur Dykes.

Clark said the victim suffered mental health problems, bad grades in school, drug use, anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships and lost several jobs over the years because of the abuse.

Dykes was convicted three times between 1983 and 1994 of sexually abusing boys, most of them Scouts.

Although there have been dozens of lawsuits against the organization over sex abuse allegations, judges for the most part have either denied requests for the files or the lawsuits have been settled before they went to trial.

The Boy Scouts had fought to keep the files being used in the Portland trial confidential. But they lost a pretrial legal battle when the Oregon Supreme Court rejected their argument that opening the files could damage the lives and reputations of people not a party to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because the Mormons acted as a charter organization, or sponsor, for the local Boy Scouts troop that included the victim. But the church has settled its portion of the case.

The Portland trial comes as the Boy Scouts are marking their 100th anniversary.

"They spent a century building the Boy Scout brand," said Patrick Boyle, author of a book about sex abuse in the Boy Scouts. "It's one of the most respected organizations in the world."

The trial "can only erode what they have been doing for 100 years," he said.

The Portland case centers on whether the Boy Scouts of America did enough to protect boys from Dykes.

The Mormon bishop who also served as head of the Scout troop, Gordon McEwen, confronted Dykes after receiving a report of abuse by the mother of one boy in the troop in January 1983.

In a video deposition played for the jury, the bishop said Dykes admitted abusing 17 boys.

But McEwen said he contacted the parents of all 17 boys and the boys themselves, and none would confirm any abuse.

Dykes was arrested in 1983 and pleaded guilty to attempted sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children.

Clark told the jury Dykes continued with his scouting activities until he was arrested in July 1984 during a routine traffic stop while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip.

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America at its headquarters in Irving, Texas, said in a statement the organization cannot comment on details of the case. But it has worked hard on awareness and prevention efforts, including background checks.

"Unfortunately, child abuse is a societal problem and there is no fail-safe method for screening out abusers," Deron Smith said.


Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Ursus]

The Wall Street Journal · WSJ BLOGS
On the Boy Scouts and the So-Called 'Perversion Files'
March 19, 2010, 5:25 PM ET

By Ashby Jones



A trial involving a man who claims he was molested in the 1980s by a Boy Scout leader began on Wednesday in state court in Portland, Oregon. The plaintiff in the case is a 37-year-old man who alleges he was molested by an assistant Scoutmaster. He has sued the Boy Scouts and is asking for $14 million in damages.

The trial will, of course, give the plaintiff ample opportunity to prove his case prior to the jury's verdict. But in a lot of ways, the biggest ruling in the case has probably already happened — when the Oregon Supreme court ruled that the so-called "perversion files" could be admitted by the plaintiff as evidence. The "perversion files," so named by the Boy Scouts, is, according to the LA Times, "an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years." Click here for an NYT story; here for a story from the Oregonian.

Until now, the files have never seen the light of day. But Kelly Clark, the lawyer for the plaintiff in the case, expects to release some of them during trial. The lawyer claims the files show that the Boy Scouts have covered up abuse for decades.

Charles Smith, attorney for the national Boy Scouts, said in his own opening statement the files were kept under wraps because they "were replete with confidential information." It was that argument — that the documents should be kept under wraps to protect those named within them — that the Oregon Supreme Court rejected. Prior to that court's ruling, according to the LAT, judges "for the most part have either denied requests for the files or the lawsuits have been settled before they went to trial."

The Portland case centers on whether the Boy Scouts of America did enough to protect boys from the man at issue, who pleaded guilty to molestation charges in the 1980s.

According to the LAT, Deron Smith, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts said in a statement that the organization cannot comment on details of the case. But it has worked hard on awareness and prevention efforts, including background checks. Said Smith: "Unfortunately, child abuse is a societal problem and there is no fail-safe method for screening out abusers."


Copyright ©2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

[Ursus]

Associated Press
Ore. lawsuit claims Boy Scouts sex abuse coverup
WILLIAM McCALL
Published: Mar 19, 2010


This undated image made available by the State of Oregon on March 18, 2010 shows Timur Dykes. Relying on about 1,000 confidential Boy Scouts of America files, the lawyer for a man sexually abused in the 1980s by Dykes, a Scout leader who later admitted to being a serial molester, claims the organization has covered up abuse for decades.
(AP Photo/State of Oregon)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Boy Scouts of America has long kept an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years.

The "perversion files," a nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the public, but that could all change in the coming weeks in an Oregon courtroom.

The lawyer for a man who was molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began Wednesday. The lawyer says the files show how the Boy Scouts have covered up abuse for decades.

The trial is significant because the files could offer a rare window into how the Boy Scouts have responded to sex abuse by Scout leaders. The only other time the documents are believed to have been presented at a trial was in the 1980s in Virginia.

At the start of the Oregon trial, attorney Kelly Clark recited the Boy Scout oath and the promise to obey Scout law to be "trustworthy." Then he presented six boxes of documents that he said will show "how the Boy Scouts of America broke that oath."

He held up file folder after file folder he said contained reports of abuse from around the country, telling the jury the efforts to keep them secret may have actually set back efforts to prevent child abuse nationally.

"The Boy Scouts of America ignored clear warning signs that Boy Scouts were being abused," Clark said.

Charles Smith, attorney for the national Boy Scouts, said in his own opening statement the files were kept under wraps because they "were replete with confidential information."

Smith told the jury the files helped national scouting leaders weed out sex offenders, especially repeat offenders who may have changed names or moved in order to join another local scouting organization.

"They were trying to do the right thing by trying to track these folks," Smith said.

Clark is seeking $14 million in damages on behalf of a 37-year-old man who was sexually molested in the early 1980s in Portland by an assistant Scoutmaster, Timur Dykes.

Clark said the victim suffered mental health problems, bad grades in school, drug use, anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships and lost several jobs over the years because of the abuse.

Dykes was convicted three times between 1983 and 1994 of sexually abusing boys, most of them Scouts.

Although there have been dozens of lawsuits against the organization over sex abuse allegations, judges for the most part have either denied requests for the files or the lawsuits have been settled before they went to trial.

The Boy Scouts had fought to keep the files being used in the Portland trial confidential. But they lost a pretrial legal battle when the Oregon Supreme Court rejected their argument that opening the files could damage the lives and reputations of people not a party to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because the Mormons acted as a charter organization, or sponsor, for the local Boy Scouts troop that included the victim. But the church has settled its portion of the case.

The Portland trial comes as the Boy Scouts are marking their 100th anniversary.

"They spent a century building the Boy Scout brand," said Patrick Boyle, author of a book about sex abuse in the Boy Scouts. "It's one of the most respected organizations in the world."

The trial "can only erode what they have been doing for 100 years," he said.

The Portland case centers on whether the Boy Scouts of America did enough to protect boys from Dykes.

The Mormon bishop who also served as head of the Scout troop, Gordon McEwen, confronted Dykes after receiving a report of abuse by the mother of one boy in the troop in January 1983.

In a video deposition played for the jury, the bishop said Dykes admitted abusing 17 boys.

But McEwen said he contacted the parents of all 17 boys and the boys themselves, and none would confirm any abuse.

Dykes was arrested in 1983 and pleaded guilty to attempted sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children.

Clark told the jury Dykes continued with his scouting activities until he was arrested in July 1984 during a routine traffic stop while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip.

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America at its headquarters in Irving, Texas, said in a statement the organization cannot comment on details of the case. But it has worked hard on awareness and prevention efforts, including background checks.

"Unfortunately, child abuse is a societal problem and there is no fail-safe method for screening out abusers," Deron Smith said.


© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.