Posted on 11/17/2020 7:01:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Sex abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America have now surpassed 88,000, according to lawyers who represent victims who’ve filed claims against the organization.
Christopher Hurley, the managing partner with a law firm representing 4,000 survivors of childhood sexual abuse who say they were victimized while participating in the Boy Scouts, said in a statement to The Christian Post that there are over 88,500 victims that have come forward as of Monday, the deadline the bankruptcy court set for such claims.
“We knew the problem was severe and we knew it had been neglected by the Boy Scout organization for too long. But with 88,500 victims, the breadth and depth of the problem now feels overwhelming,” he said. “I have represented tragically injured people for 36 years but the number of broken, lonely men I have come to know over the last six months has had a profound impact on me personally.”
Hurley is the managing partner with Hurley McKenna and Mertz, P.C., a Chicago law firm representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
"I admire their courage for coming forward and their willingness to share their pain so that what happened to them may never happen to another child,” he added.
Other lawyers told The New York Times that over 82,000 abuse claims were made against the group as of late Sunday and that the number of sexual abuse cases filed against BSA far exceeds the number of cases linked to abuse claims in the Roman Catholic Church.
“I knew there were a lot of cases,” said Paul Mones, an attorney who has been working on BSA cases for approximately 20 years.
“I never contemplated it would be a number close to this,” noting that with the prevalence of the abuse the number may represent a mere fraction of victims.
The accusers range in age from 8 to 93.
The BSA has filed for bankruptcy but hopes to reemerge anew one day.
According to its bankruptcy filing, the organization founded in 1910 reportedly has over $1 billion in assets, much of it in real estate.
“The response we have seen from survivors has been gut-wrenching,” the BSA said in the statement, noting that it was “devastated by the number of lives impacted by past abuse in Scouting.”
“We are deeply sorry.”
Earlier this year, the BSA filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid the torrent of allegations, a move some argue was to veil their culpability.
"They’re going into bankruptcy not because they don’t have the money. They’re going into bankruptcy to hide … a Mount Everest in dirty secrets," said Tim Kosnoff, a lawyer who has tried thousands of child abuse cases, in an interview with USA Today earlier this year.
Abused in Scouting, a coalition of legal advocates that represents approximately 10,000 claimants that first sued the group in January, had urged all those with claims to file before the court-mandated cut-off date.
"You will forever lose your right to hold that group accountable once they exit the bankruptcy process,” AIS attorney Andrew Van Arsdale said, according to ABC affiliate WSBC-5.
From 2017 to 2019, the BSA said it has paid $150 million in settlements and legal costs.
The group has been dealing with litigation since 2010 when a significant case yielded $19.9 million in damages, the largest ever amount awarded to an individual claimant.
As a result of that case, several thousands of confidential documents that became known as the "perversion files" were released. Those documents contained the names of volunteers that had been banned from serving with the organization and how the BSA had documented both suspected and known abusers while failing to notify the authorities, parents and community about the scope of the problem.
BSA presently has around 2.2 million members, a figure that has declined from its highest number of approximately 5 million in the 1970s.
RE: I know four who were diddled by priests. Where the is the Class Action against the Vatican?
Heck, I know numerous cases of sex abuse in OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, where’s the class action against the public schools?
“Join the Rainbow Scouts, where all 57 genders will be welcome!”
A massive nationwide non stop ad campaign on radio and tv by lawyers probably had something to do with it.
Agree. Must have spent tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on those ads.
Found out a year ago a fella I’ve known for 25 years was one of the diddlers back in the 60’s. Arrested, fined, and kicked out as a scout leader. No one knew until after he died, and googling his name produced page after page from the Perversion Files.
Scouting for Boys.
DOJ Project Safe Childhood in the U.S. seeks to arrest and prosecute them. (And there are many of them!)
Pedogate is not just a U.S. monstrosity. It is satanic and an evil international horror show from hell.
This stuff predates the allowance of openly gay men into the Boy Scouts by several decades.
L
My scout master did time in state prison for abusing my friends. He is in the BSA “perversion files.” Some older scouts defended the pedo and beat up one of the younger scout victims to keep him quiet. I joined the troop right as all this was happening and was not directly involved. In hindsight I can see the pedo started grooming me but fortunately he was caught due to leaving pics of scouts in a house after he moved out.
“My father was molested by his Scout Master in the 1970s.”
He wasn’t the only one, not by a long shot. And it wasn’t just Scout Masters doing it. This is entirely the fault of the leadership of the Scouts. They knew about it and did almost nothing to stop it.
L
No one knew until after he died, and googling his name produced page after page from the Perversion Files.
What are the perversion files? Have not heard of that. Is it a website?
File a case on his behalf.
Really.
These pervs need to be outed and punished.
My point was that the church has been doing this for centuries and covering it up. It needs 25x7 coverage the way the Scouts have been destroyed.
"The accusers range in age from 8 to 93."
I was a boy scout and loved it. We had a great time and no perversion beyond lighting farts in tents with our pants on. This is a very sad situation. I call BS on the 93 year old.
I never heard about any perverts in the Boy Scouts until after I got married. When my wife was a little girl they had a scout meeting at their house. One of the scout leaders came up to her room and showed her his penis and wanted her to touch it. She was not traumatized but told her dad.
Her dad acted like it was no big deal, but he spread the word and the other fathers started asking their kids about the guy and found that he was a pervert who had been doing bad stuff with the boys. Some of the fathers set up an ambush and beat the living crap out of the guy; he was never seen again in the community and most people assumed that he was dead. That is how things like this used to be handled in our community... no police or lawyers necessary.
Their annual report is audited and public. Last time I looked BSA had 800 million in cash and investments.
Oh sure... the Form 990PF. I should have looked. I’m surprised its that high—and I wonder if that number is net of likely outcomes of active cases. I know that normal accounting provides reserves, but in case where there’s molestation, judgements often turned into a landslide rather than a betting proposition.
With all the claims out there, I’m not sure that’s going to be much per person and per lawyer.
These lawyers are not fit to live. As societal parasites they dredge up clients from whom they sponge a 50% fee from the settlement pot
Any body can respond to the TV ads and make a claim
“Last time I looked BSA had 800 million in cash and investments.”
Talk about trolling with a c-note at a legal conference!
I had many excellent adventures in the scouts.
Sad, the destruction of the fabric of society.
By design.
“Any body can respond to the TV ads and make a claim”
That’s the problem when your reputation is shot, from then on its an uphill battle to prove your innocence.
My mother did on his behalf, but he’s reluctant to cooperate. It has brought out a lot of things in him and he says he’s too ashamed and humiliated to go through it all over again after having to testify in court as a teenager. I hope he changes his mind.
***That is how things like this used to be handled in our community... no police or lawyers necessary. ***
My sister-in-law told of a similar situation back in the 1940s. After the kids complained about a local “too friendly” man, some members of her dad’s club waylaid the local pervert and put him in the hospital. No cops, no lawyers. The pervert soon left town.
Answer is in post #1
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