Irving-based Boy Scouts hit with $7 million verdict in sex abuse case
Source: AP
WATERBURY, Conn. A man who says he was sexually abused by a Connecticut scout leader in the mid-1970s has won a $7 million jury verdict against the Boy Scouts of America.
Lawyers for the man said the decision, handed down Friday in Waterbury Superior Court, was the largest verdict for compensatory damages against the Boy Scouts national organization. The jury also found the organization liable for punitive damages, with the amount to be determined by a judge.
The man, known only as John Doe in court documents, alleges he was a member of a New Fairfield Boy Scouts troop when its leader, Siegfried Hepp, sexually abused him three times.
Messages seeking comment were left Monday at phone listings for Hepp in New Fairfield and Lady Lake, Fla. He wasnt a defendant in the lawsuit.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20141215-irving-based-boy-scouts-hit-with-7-million-verdict-in-sex-abuse-case.ece
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Xithras
(16,191 posts)In Fridays verdict, the jury also cleared the local Connecticut Yankee Council of the Boy Scouts of America, formerly known as the Fairfield County Council of Boy Scouts of America, of any wrongdoing in connection with the alleged sexual abuse.
So the local council registered and vetted the child molester and the local troop and council ignored the earlier complaint about the molestation? And yet the jury cleared the local troop and council of wrongdoing and assigned blame to the national organization? That doesn't seem to make sense.