Scouts must pay $18.5 million in abuse case

christiefan915

christiefan915

Catalyst
Let's look at other organizations that have had decades'-long cover ups of their abusive members.

It's only fair, right?

PORTLAND, Ore. - A jury on Friday ordered the Boy Scouts of America to pay $18.5 million to a man sexually abused by a former assistant Scoutmaster in what is believed to be the largest such award against the organization.

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.

They also noted the Boy Scouts had never apologized to Lewis, who said Friday at a news conference that the verdict shows that "big corporations can't be above the law...."

...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....

...Boy Scouts officials declined to comment on details of the case because other cases are pending, but issued a statement saying it maintains a "rigorous" system to screen Scout leaders.

"The Boy Scouts of America has always stood against child abuse of any kind," it said....

...Kelly Clark and Paul Mones, the attorneys for Lewis, told the jury the Boy Scouts were nearly a $1 billion corporation that could well afford punitive damages intended to deter them from similar conduct in the future.

Clark and Mones said Friday after the verdict that publicity about the case also could act as a deterrent.

"...They've always settled. And they're silent. No one hears because it does not see the light of day," Mones said. "What we saw here in Portland really pulled back the covers on the Boy Scouts of America, and what it did to cover up..."

...During the first phase of the trial, Clark and Mones introduced more than 1,000 files the Scouts kept on suspected child molesters from 1965-85 as evidence the organization should have put a sex abuse prevention program into place decades ago.

The Scouts executive now in charge of those files admitted they had never been evaluated or analyzed to help design or determine the effectiveness of a prevention program that is now in place....

Entire article here (click)
 
And then there's the abuse by Protestant clergy...

The Associated Press reported recently that three insurance companies receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by Protestant clergy, challenging the assumption that clergy sexual abuse is an exclusively Catholic problem that does not take place in other churches.

That is a higher number than the annual average of 228 “credible accusations” brought against Catholic clerics in records reported by the Catholic Church in response to media scrutiny, a priest observed in a Fox News commentary questioning why the story isn’t garnering more attention.

While the report about abuse in Protestant churches doesn’t absolve guilty Catholic priests or those who enabled them, said Father Jonathan Morris, it offers a more complete picture. “The problem of sexual abuse has no denominational boundaries,” he wrote.

The AP obtained figures on sex-abuse claims from three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America–Church Mutual Insurance Company, GuideOne Insurance and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company.

The largest company, Church Mutual, reported an average of about 100 sex-abuse cases a year involving minors over the last decade. GuideOne, with about half the clients of Church Mutual, said it has received an average of 160 reports of sex abuse against minors every year for the past two decades. Brotherhood Mutual said it received an average of 73 reports of child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct every year for the last 15 years but did not specify how many victims are younger than 18.

That compares to at least 10,667 people who reported plausible claims of childhood sexual abuse by 4,392 priests or deacons between 1950 and 2002 in a study commissioned by the Catholic Church with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York as part of its response to its clergy abuse scandal. That represents 4 percent of the approximately 110,000 diocesan and religious priests who served in the United States in those years.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offers an extensive annual report monitoring sexual-abuse claims. There were 635 new allegations reported in 2006, 9 percent fewer than in 2005. A total of 14 allegations (2 percent) involved children under the age of 18 in 2006. The remaining 621 allegations were by adults alleging abuse as minors in previous years.

Protestant numbers are harder to come by, the AP reported, because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic Church. Many churches are independent, making reporting even harder.

“This bad news for Protestant Churches is sad news for all of us,” Father Morris wrote. “I would prefer the problem be limited to any one church–even if that church were my own–because it would mean more kids would be safe. But as I have said repeatedly over the last few years, the problem of sexual abuse of minors is not an issue of religious affiliation because there is nothing religious about abusing children. The phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors in church settings is the story of sick human beings taking advantage of their position of moral authority to prey on the weak and vulnerable. If Catholic clergy were to be faithful to their church’s teaching, there would be no abuse in the Catholic Church. The same goes for Protestant clergy. The problem, then, is not one of corrupt doctrine, but of individuals being unfaithful to the most basic precepts of their own religious belief.”

Insurance officials told the AP the numbers of sex-abuse cases has remained steady over the past two decades, but churches are doing more to prevent child-sexual abuse by conducting background checks, installing windows in nurseries and play areas and requiring at least two adults in a room with a child.

Still, said Patrick Moreland of Church Mutual, churches are particularly vulnerable to abusers.

“By their nature, congregations are the most trusting of organizations, so that makes them attractive targets for predators,” he said. “If you’re a predator, where do you go? You go to a congregation that will welcome you.”

http://dannimoss.wordpress.com/2008...buse-equals-or-exceeds-catholic-clergy-abuse/
 
Southern Man said:
Still have a bug up your ass I see.
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SM, you are a hypocritical piece of shit. You rant and rave about how homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to marry because of their immoral behavior, and then post this crap about a jury of scout haters and such.

The fact that it has taken this long to get the Boy Scouts to change is an outrage. But you are too chickenshit to speak up because you know people will burn you for your avoidance of the molester priests issue. And you still haven't spoken out against the catholic clergy like you would if it were any other organization.

Dixie may be crazy, but at least he stands up for what he believes in. You just try and sound like a badass for your little fanclub of 3.

At one time you were a tough debator. But you have devolved down to just another piece of trash. Its sad.
 
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webbway said:
And people still don't understand why the scouts ban gays from being scoutmasters.
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Being gay does not mean they molest children. Do a little research into pedophiles and find out what the studies have shown.
 
wherever there are children, there are pedophiles lurking...even in the home

says the voice of experience
 
DonQuixote said:
wherever there are children, there are pedophiles lurking...even in the home

says the voice of experience
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DonQ, if your experience was that of a victim, I am very sorry. I have seen, first hand, the devastation that this sort of abuse can have on people's lives.
 
WinterBorn said:
DonQ, if your experience was that of a victim, I am very sorry. I have seen, first hand, the devastation that this sort of abuse can have on people's lives.
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yes it was first hand...my brother and i by our adoptive father

some pedophiles look for single mothers...or fathers
 
DonQuixote said:
yes it was first hand...my brother and i by our adoptive father

some pedophiles look for single mothers...or fathers
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Man, i just can't imagine going through that DQ.

I was babysitting my 2 1/2 yr. old niece last week and I remember the thought crossing my mind how the hell could someone ever touch a child at this age and what a sick sick f*ck they must be to do that.
 
 
If a man goes after a boy then he's queer as well as a pedophile. Those pshrinks can't get that fact into their pin heads.
 
DonQuixote said:
how do you explain male pedophiles that go after girls

i have spent over 50 years getting over it

some like boys and girls, it is about power for those #@$%#@%$$
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Some peds are straight and others are queer. They all should be shot and their bodies dumped at the local landfill.
 
Southern Man said:
If a man goes after a boy then he's queer as well as a pedophile. Those pshrinks can't get that fact into their pin heads.
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No, that is not how it works. As much as you wish it were that way.

Male pedophiles who attack male children rarely show any interest in adult males. They are not gay, they are pedophiles. The children they attack are based mainly on availability, not gender. A child does not look like a man.



By your logic, if a man is attracted to animals, and has sex with a male animals, does that make him gay?
 
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