Scouts Ordered to pay 18.5 million in Abuse Case

Source: MSNBC, AP

PORTLAND, Ore. - A jury on Friday ordered the Boy Scouts of America to pay $18.5 million to an Oregon man sexually abused by a former assistant Scoutmaster in the early 1980s.

Lawyers for Kerry 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.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36746861/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36746861/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

A jury on Friday ordered the Boy Scouts of America to pay $18.5 million to an Oregon man sexually abused by a former assistant Scoutmaster in the early 1980s.

Lawyers for Kerry 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.

The jury decided on April 13 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 LDS church already settled out of court.

is not enforced in a meaningful way in most troops.

I am not endorsing the national policy as "OK." It is wrong and exists largely because of the cancer the LDS church has become to the BSA.

Fortunately, "Scouting for all" exists in a meaningful way across the country. Most of the kids involved in the program haven't figured out their orientation or religious beliefs, anyways. Ultimately the anti-Gay and Anti-Atheist rules only effect adult leaders, and unless someone makes a huge deal out of it, no one questions and no one really cares. And let';s face it: A youth organization is not the place to carry out an agenda be it hetero or homo sexual in nature.

The program is a worthy one. I know of Gays and Lesbians involved. I would bet, frankly, that two of my troop's last 5 Eagle Scouts were gay.

Which is what the Boy Scouts do.

They fail to enforce in in a meaningful way locally, most of the time. There are clearly some troops who have litmus tests. In my experience, most troops do not.

they're keeping them in business and have the majority of troop memberships. Not necessarily the most hardcore scouters since all boys are enrolled as part of the youth program by default but if you knew anything about it you'd know they keep the BSA's coffers from running dry.

Any time you have have an organization with lots of youth, the pedophiles will seek it out.

The Girl Scouts are doing fine without it.

The LDS involvement would have been a good thing had they not started to edict rules that would make Baden Powell cringe.

When I was a kid in Ohio I could not join the scouts because my family did not belong to a church. Not that I could have afforded to buy the official BS stuff anyhow.

There may well be "troops" where the nationally recognized and agreed upon rules of the organization are not enforced (thus automatically earning the Hypocrisy Badge?) but just a couple of years ago Penn & Teller's BULLSHIT program found the BSA (a Holy subsidized affiliate of the Church of Latter Day Saints) to continue to be only for boys of approved evident sexual orientation and professed religious belief.

They aren't enforced at the troops level. I have current first hand experience, which I have shared. Not going to church is not a limiting factor--even if one troop demands it, there are other troops.

I mentioned LDS as a cancer on the Boy Scouts.

yet and in spite of having freely given one's oath to uphold the values of that organization, one does not follow the nationally agreed upon rules of that organization ... what does that make one?

Further, if one does not agree, then why be a member?

Especially why be a part of something if one recognizes that a powerful, intolerant, organization is shaping the direction of the group?

Just asking. Scout's honor.

These are the oaths I have taken:

On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

and

I reaffirm my allegiance
to the three promises of the Scout Oath
I thoughtfully recognize and take upon myself
the obligations and responsibilities of the rank of Eagle Scout
On my honor I will do my best
to make my training an example
my rank and my influence count strongly
for better Scouting and for better citizenship
in my troop and in my community
and in my contacts with other people
To this I pledge my sacred honor.

and

I promise on my honor as a Scout, that I will always and faithfully observe and preserve the traditions of
the order of the Arrow, Wimachtendienk, Wingolauchsik, Witahemui. I will always regard the ties of the
brotherhood in the Order of the Arrow as lasting, and will seek to preserve a cheerful spirit even in the
midst of irksome tasks and weighty responsibilities, and will endeavor, so far as my power lies, to be
unselfish in service and devotion to the welfare of others.

Here is the Scout Law as referenced in the first Oath:

A Scout is:

* Trustworthy,
* Loyal,
* Helpful,
* Friendly,
* Courteous,
* Kind,
* Obedient,
* Cheerful,
* Thrifty,
* Brave,
* Clean,
* and Reverent.

You will note that no where in any of these oaths and any of these laws is there a definition of "God" or is there any wording to exclude those of different sexual orientations/

The BSA has misguided leaders at the top greatly influenced by outside forces.

But he Programs is world wide. It teaches amazing skills that are useful throughout life. Being a Boy Scout gave me the moral compass to know that their policies are wrong.

Now let me turn your question on you:

Do you agree with ever policy of the United States? If not, then why be a citizen? The questions are, of course, rhetorical. They are meant to point out that we don't belong in a boolean world. People need to take the good where they can get the good.

Bottom Line: Scouting is not about any kind of sex orientation. It is about building Citizenship, Character, and Physical Fitness.

The Scouts are a billion dollar organization. The jury has spoken.

From the link:

"Under Oregon law, 60 percent of the punitive damages awarded by the jury will go to the state crime victim compensation fund."

Sounds like an excellent use of the money. Much more useful than sitting in the coffers of a huge corporation that STILL refuses to make child protection training mandatory.

...conduct in the future. They are not to reward the plaintiff. Punies ~~ when found ~~ are based on the financials of the defendant because they are done to punish.

Your profile says you have six children and seven grandchildren. Is there a per-kid price for child sexual abuse you'd be okay with for your family? What would that amount be?

Maybe we should lower the bar a bit and forget punitive damages are supposed to be, oh, punitive? Go to dictionary.com if you're not really familiar with the concept of "punitive."

What exactly would your reaction be if you found out one of your children or grandchildren had been sexually abused by the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church? Would a PUNISHMENT for someone abusing your family of $1, $100 or $1000 be okay? I mean we don't want it to be a ridiculously high amount. Making it ridiculously high might actually cause them to take note. Until that amount is overturned by a sympathetic appellate court.

I guess you must think that the mere fact an organization like the BSA being found guilty in a case like this is punishment enough they'll change their ways? History says no (Google for Catholic Church sex abuse scandals).

Punishment is meant to cause the offender to take note their actions were inappropriate and make them reflect upon their actions in order to prevent those actions in the future. That's why we call it punishment. It's not supposed to be pleasant.

So slapping the BSA with a ridiculously small fine won't really punish them in my opinion. The punishment must be equal to the crime - and in some cases greater in order to deter future bad behavior. We do actually execute people for just one murder. We don't wait for them to repeat that behavior several hundred or thousands of times to get serious about stopping it.

Maybe you can enlighten me on what appropriate damages are for raping a child? Again, tell me what the "reasonable" fine might be for people who rape your kids or grand kids? I'm curious to know just what value you put on their well-being?

What exactly would your reaction be if you found out one of your children or grandchildren had been sexually abused by the Boy Scouts
Neither the accuser, judge, or jury ever made the accusation that the man was abused by the Boy Scouts, nor that they were directly responsible for the abuse. He was abused by an unpaid adult volunteer. The accusation, and finding, was that they were negligent in not having a program in place to screen these people out, even though they had records of thousands of incidents to prove that it was a real problem. It was a negligence judgment, not an abuse judgment.

Punishment is meant to cause the offender to take note their actions were inappropriate and make them reflect upon their actions in order to prevent those actions in the future.
They did. Way back in 1985 (all of the accusations against them predate 1985). I'm a BSA parent volunteer (former ASM, now badge counselor), and we are required to take Youth Protection Training to learn the BSA's anti-abuse policies, and then re-take the training every two years. No kid is allowed to be alone with an adult. No kid is allowed to camp in a tent with an adult. No kid is ever allowed to be alone in a home with an adult. Even your own kid. It's so far reaching and rabidly enforced that it's almost comical. One violation, and you get kicked from the BSA with a lifetime ban and a label of "potential abuser".

Unlike the Catholic Church, the BSA isn't pro-pedophile. At the national level, the organization is run by a bunch of right wingers who take the "cut their balls off, tie their honey covered asses to a tree, and let the ants eat them to death" view on pedophilia. Their policies reflect that view (this also, by the way, is their rationale for banning gay's...they see them as being more likely to abuse children...I disagree, but that's their position).

The judgment isn't going to teach them anything, because they're already as anti-pedophile as you can get. These lawsuits are entirely about things that happened over 25 years ago, before the current regimen was implemented.

It should have bankrupted this bigoted organization.

:hi:

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- An Oregon jury on Friday found the Boy Scouts of America liable for the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy more than 25 years ago, returning a verdict of $18.5 million in punitive damages.

The plaintiff, Kerry Lewis, now 38, allowed his name to be used publicly during the trial, according to his attorneys. He is among six men suing the Boy Scouts over allegations of sexual abuse.

Attorney Kelly Clark has said that when his clients were boys during the 1980s, the organization knew that at least one of them had been abused by former assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes. The 53-year-old convicted sex offender was released from prison in 2005 and paroled until 2013. He could not be reached on Friday.

Clark also alleged that though the scout leader was removed, he was allowed to stay on as a volunteer and the abuse continued. In 1983, Dykes told troop leaders he abused 17 scouts, according to plaintiff's attorneys.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/23/oregon.boy.scout.abuse/index.html?hpt=T1

I spent 15 years involved in the Boy Scouts and there are certain people I just looked at much differently than other leaders. There were some I refused to go near without at least 3 other scouts AND a trusted adult leader.

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I hope it wrecks he influence he LDS has with the Scouts.