re: Boy Scouts of America weighs bankruptcy

Albuquerque Journal from today

Two former Albuquerque priests alleged to have participated in “sex parties” with children in the 1990s gained access to boys in another arena – by becoming Boy Scout leaders, according to a new lawsuit.

One vulnerable boy, who started in Cub Scouts and Webelo scouting, was “groomed” by the then-priests as early as 1980, culminating in “sexual abuse of all kinds” by 1983 to 1985 and for several years after he left scouting, according to a lawsuit filed against The Boy Scouts of America and the organization’s Great Southwest Council in New Mexico.

The lawsuit filed against the Boy Scouts and its New Mexico nonprofit organization contends that then-Catholic priests Robert Malloy and Ronald Bruckner were leaders in an officially sanctioned Boy Scout troop that operated out of Our Lady of Assumption parish through a charter with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Both Bruckner and Malloy are on the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s list of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse. Their names surfaced in a recent lawsuit that alleges the two took children to sex parties that were sometimes filmed.

That lawsuit, filed against the archdiocese and the parish Nov. 26, is now part of a Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy case filed by the archdiocese last week.

The case against the Boy Scouts alleges that the organization was negligent because it “knew or had reason to know that Malloy and Bruckner had abused boys in their care at a time prior to, or during the time the plaintiff in the case was in their troop.”

At no time did officials of the Boy Scouts of America inform the boy or his family that the organization kept a list of known pedophiles, “which they themselves called ‘the perversion files,’ ” the lawsuit contends.

According to a news release from attorneys, the Boy Scouts of America began keeping secret files on pedophiles (called the “Perversion Files” or “Ineligible Volunteer Files”) soon after the organization formed in 1910. By January of 1935, BSA had accumulated approximately 1,000 pedophile files. In the decades between 1920 and 1980 (the time of the plaintiff’s abuse), BSA continued to receive thousands of reports to their national office that Scout Leaders were using their positions of trust to groom and sexually abuse boys in connection with Scout trips, events and activities. During much of this period, the Scouts were receiving at least one or two reports each week about sexual abuse by Scout Leaders.

As I said this organization needs to be shut down for allowing active pedophile rings to operate despite evidence and tacit knowledge that their Scout Leaders were involved for decades.