Posted on 05/21/2005 8:32:30 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
In the small New England town of Plainville, Mass., 71-year-old Ronald Fredrickson is considered a near saint.
He has been a Boy Scout troop leader for more than 40 years, a town road laborer who worked his way up to highway superintendent during his 37 years in the department and a three-term selectman in the local government. He's a member of the Conservation Commission, the local historical society and recipient of the Plainville Community Service Award in 2003 - as well as a recipient of honors from the Scouts, Rotary and Lions.
Fredrickson seemed the epitome of a person who makes communities thrive.
But on Friday he was sentenced to a year in the Dane County Jail, put on probation for 25 years and placed on lifetime sexual offender supervision for the sexual assault last year of one of his Scout troop members while on a trip that brought them to Dane County.
As he had done for years, Fredrickson organized a trip for members of his troop, with more than a dozen Scouts and a handful of adults traveling from Massachusetts to California. One of the stopovers was in a motel in DeForest. It was in DeForest, on Aug. 12, that Fredrickson talked one of the boys into sharing his bed, and the 13-year-old boy would later tell police he awoke that night to find Fredrickson masturbating him.
Prosecutor John Norsetter said in court Friday that after the charges against Fredrickson became known, three other former members of Scout Troop 132 from Plainville came forward to say they, too, had been assaulted by Fredrickson while in Scouts.
Fredrickson did not contest the Dane County charge of second-degree sexual assault of a child and was sentenced Friday by Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess.
"I feel very bad about this," he told the judge, while handing Norsetter a letter of apology he had written to the boy and his parents. Because of bail conditions during the case, he could not contact the family or the boy before doing so by letter Friday.
"Above all, I'm sorry for the hurt I caused the community," Fredrickson said, adding that while he thought he could be redeemed, "I don't think I could run for public office. Hopefully I will get back on the right track" (and) "be a better person and a better citizen."
Attorney Brian Gleason, who represented Fredrickson, said his client "was described to me as somebody who was held in the highest esteem in his community," and said he is remorseful. "I know that it hurts him deeply that Boy Scouts will not be a part of his life," Gleason said.
The judge, who has been active in Boy Scouts himself, said Fredrickson's actions will hurt scouting nationwide.
"Scouts are under siege precisely because of situations like this," Niess said, adding that when a pedophile is disclosed as a Scout leader it has the effect of fueling the negative public perception of many parents about the Boy Scouts. "The entire scouting movement across the country has suffered," he told Fredrickson.
"You have fallen as far as you can fall as a Scout leader," the judge said. "It is a huge loss and something you will have to live with forever."
But Niess also said he was impressed by letters of support sent to the court from the people of Plainville, which has a population of about 7,000.
Letter after letter told of positive experiences boys had as Scouts in Troop 132, which Fredrickson led for more than 40 years, with several saying Fredrickson provided guidance they did not get from their fathers.
"He is a quiet man of strength and dignity who has spent his entire life completely and unselfishly devoted to the town in which he grew up - a town and its people that he loves with all his heart," wrote Ralph Hemmington in a view that seemed shared by many.
But as Norsetter pointed out, that is one side of Fredrickson. There is also "a side the victim sees...that is diametrically opposed," he said, and it is one that leads his victims to feel a terrible sense of betrayal.
Only allow adult scout leaders who have or have had children in the program.
"Scouts are under siege precisely because of situations like this,"
Sorry Judge, what this man did was disgusting and wrong of course, but my impression is that the Scouts are under assualt for not encouraging situations that may lead to behaviour like this.
The judge, who has been active in Boy Scouts himself, said Fredrickson's actions will hurt scouting nationwide."Scouts are under siege precisely because of situations like this," Niess said, adding that when a pedophile is disclosed as a Scout leader it has the effect of fueling the negative public perception of many parents about the Boy Scouts. "The entire scouting movement across the country has suffered," he told Fredrickson.
A year is nothing and this man stands accused as a repeat offender.
The judge is "sorry" that this homosexual got caught. The public has a problem with gay scout leaders. This is why. It hurts the image of gay scout leaders so much more than it hurts the image of the BSA.
Only one year? That is rediculous. I don't care how saintly a person is, sexual assault is sexual assault.
"Scouts are under siege precisely because of situations like this," Niess said, adding that when a pedophile is disclosed as a Scout leader it has the effect of fueling the negative public perception of many parents about the Boy Scouts. "The entire scouting movement across the country has suffered," he told Fredrickson.
He should have taken the opportunity to rip the left and their insistant demand that homos be accepted and allowed in the Boy Scouts.
Kind of like Neverland.
Sickening!
The judge at least got it right.
To them, "Boy Scouts," means "scouting for boys."
Our leaders are all required to take youth protection courses. I see this as partly the counsels fault. They were not following established guidelines.
They play by Kennedy Rules. It is mASSachusetts.
Regretfully, that would not stop sexual assualt of children in the BSA (or, I suspect, any other program). There have been cases of such.
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