Free Republic

“Trail of Betrayal” is a joint project from Scripps broadcast, print and digital journalists based in Washington, D.C. Over 6 months, the Scripps National Investigative team researched and reported on a portion of the Boy Scouts of America's confidential files. The files were designed as a way to protect scouts. It was created to keep individuals out of scouting that Boy Scouts of America deemed "ineligible” to serve. Most individuals on the list were Scout leaders accused of molesting children. The files, which span the period from 1970 to 1991, were obtained through a court-ordered release of the records and...

Decades of confidential sexual abuse allegations from within the Boy Scouts of America will spill into public view later today when more than 1,200 of the organization’s “perversion files” are released by order of the Oregon Supreme Court. The files will offer the public an unprecedented look at how suspected molestations were handled by one of the nation’s leading youth organizations from the early 1960s through 1985, a time when awareness of sexual abuse was evolving rapidly. ~snip~ The abuse reports to be released today played a key role as evidence in a landmark Oregon lawsuit in 2010 that resulted...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Jurors on Tuesday found the Boy Scouts of America negligent and awarded $1.4 million to a former Portland man who was abused by an assistant Scoutmaster in the early 1980s, following a three-week trial in which secret Scout "perversion files" were used as evidence. The jury also decided the Irving, Texas-based Scouts organization was liable for punitive damages that will be decided in a separate phase of the trial. That would be in addition to the $1.4 million. The Scouts denied allegations of negligence and said the files actually helped them keep child molesters out of...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Boy Scouts of America call them "perversion files," internal documents used to track Scout leaders suspected of sexually abusing young boys, and they have became part of the public record in an Oregon lawsuit. A judge who had ordered the Scouts to release them received 1,247 files into evidence near the end of the day Friday - the third day of trial that began with a lawyer saying "you will be the first jury to see them." Attorneys Paul Mones and Kelly Clark won the release of files from 1965-85 to help them make the...