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Amid many legal claims of sexual abuse and misconduct, The Boy Scouts of America, one of the nation’s oldest and largest youth organizations that instills life skills into young boys, has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
Officials have not specified how many abuse lawsuits have been filed or the amount paid in settlements and judgments. However, attorneys for the plaintiffs claim that the number of lawsuits are into the hundreds. Countless others were settled out of court with NDA agreements before lawsuits were filed, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The filing comes amid declining membership due to the countless sex abuse lawsuits. This includes the departure of approximately 400,000 Scouts in troops sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which cut ties with the Scouts. These suits have soured after several states, including California and New York, expanded legal options for childhood victims to sue. The bankruptcy petition, which was filed early Tuesday, lists assets of $1 billion to $10 billion and liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion, according to the LA Times. The documents did note that local Scouts’ councils are not part of the bankruptcy.
In 2012, the Los Angeles Times published internal Scout documents that involved nearly 5,000 men on a blacklist known as the “perversion files.” This set of sealed records tell the story of sexual abuse allegations against Scout leaders and others in the organization that date back a century. About 1,200 of these files were most famously used by Attorney Paul Mones in 2010 to win a $19.9-million verdict against the Scouts in Portland, Oregon, on behalf of a man who was sexually abused in the 1980s by members of the Scouts.
“The biggest takeaway from that trial was that the public saw for the first time that the BSA had this vast knowledge base of sexual abuse that they sat on and did not educate the Scouts or their parents, and kept it from the public,” Mones later said.
During the LA Times examination of the files, hundreds of cases were located that proved the Scouts concealed allegations from authorities, the public, and parents. Instead, they urged alleged abusers to resign before covering up the reasons for the resignations.
Roger Mosby, the Scouts president, and chief executive officer, confirmed the filing in a statement, stating “the Boy Scouts of America “cares deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologizes to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting. We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children.” He continued by saying, “While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 process — with the proposed Trust structure — will provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSA’s important mission.”
Sadly, the bankruptcy will halt ongoing lawsuits while settlements are negotiated, as well as require new abuse claims to be handled outside of state courts.
Gilion Dumas, a Portland, Oregon attorney, has handled more than a dozen lawsuits pending against the Scouts in California. According to her, halting the process will only leave her clients in limbo as the lawsuits will fall in line with other creditors who are owed. This includes a client who would finally get his day in court this March for allegations of sexual abuse at the ages of 9 and 10 by a Scout leader.
“He was finally going to get his day in court, and that is going to be yanked away from him, and he will be stuck in line with a lot of other people in bankruptcy court. He will have to wait another two years to get any kind of compensation for his injuries.” Dumas revealed.
