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Scout Leader Gets Year for Sexual Assault (WI/MA)
Madison.com ^ | May 21, 2005 | Mike Miller

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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Massachusetts; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: boyscouts; bsa; childmolestation; gayscoutleader; homosexualagenda; itsjustsex; judicialtyranny; landofbarneyfrank; landofbarneyfwank; manboylove; massachusetts; molestation; predator; rape; samesexmarriage; seduction; sex; sexualassault
71 years old. A lifetime of scouting and a lifetime of being a predator all rolled up in one "quiet man of strength and dignity." Blech!
1 posted on 05/21/2005 8:32:30 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Only allow adult scout leaders who have or have had children in the program.


2 posted on 05/21/2005 8:38:23 AM PDT by Semper Paratus
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

"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.


3 posted on 05/21/2005 8:43:02 AM PDT by jocon307 (Legal immigrant Irish grandmother rolls in grave, yet again.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
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.

4 posted on 05/21/2005 8:44:43 AM PDT by weegee ("Do you want them to write a piece about how great the military is?" Elizabeth Bumiller - NY Times)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Only one year? That is rediculous. I don't care how saintly a person is, sexual assault is sexual assault.


5 posted on 05/21/2005 8:47:26 AM PDT by Celtic Rose (It may be prudent in me to act sometimes by other men's reason, but I can think only by my own)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
This doesn't necessarily hurt the image of the Boy Scouts. It mainly confirms them in their stand against homosexuals among the troops. Homosexuals have a very large number of sexual predators in their ranks, and those pedophiles view the Boy Scouts as a "happy hunting ground." They don't want to serve in the Scouts, they want to be served in the accommodation of their lusts.
6 posted on 05/21/2005 9:03:18 AM PDT by Orca (Protect the Scouts)
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To: Orca
Agreed! This remark the judge made was waaay off base:

"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.

7 posted on 05/21/2005 9:09:41 AM PDT by demkicker (Warning the GOP Senators: Nuke the filibuster!)
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To: Orca
"pedophiles view the Boy Scouts as a "happy hunting ground."

Kind of like Neverland.

8 posted on 05/21/2005 9:33:01 AM PDT by sageb1
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To: jocon307
Remember all the flap for not allowing Gay scoutmasters? Reports like this make me glad they weren't sop 'tolerant'
9 posted on 05/21/2005 9:42:42 AM PDT by DarkSavant
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Sickening!


10 posted on 05/21/2005 10:00:52 AM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin; RonF; AppauledAtAppeasementConservat; Da Jerdge; Looking for Diogenes; ...
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."

The judge at least got it right.

11 posted on 05/21/2005 10:31:57 AM PDT by AZHua87 (Insurgent BloggerVet!)
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To: Orca
They don't want to serve in the Scouts, they want to be served in the accommodation of their lusts.

To them, "Boy Scouts," means "scouting for boys."

12 posted on 05/21/2005 10:36:03 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
They weren't following the buddy system. Every scout has a buddy and goes no where without him. No adult is ever to be alone with a scout. Where were the other adults on this trip and why weren't they following the established rules?

Our leaders are all required to take youth protection courses. I see this as partly the counsels fault. They were not following established guidelines.

13 posted on 05/21/2005 10:42:44 AM PDT by farmfriend (Send in the Posse)
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To: farmfriend

They play by Kennedy Rules. It is mASSachusetts.


14 posted on 05/22/2005 1:41:34 AM PDT by weegee ("Do you want them to write a piece about how great the military is?" Elizabeth Bumiller - NY Times)
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To: Semper Paratus
Only allow adult scout leaders who have or have had children in the program.

Regretfully, that would not stop sexual assualt of children in the BSA (or, I suspect, any other program). There have been cases of such.

15 posted on 05/23/2005 8:52:14 AM PDT by RonF
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