Men reach settlement with Boy Scouts in abuse cases

Portland Tribune

Six men who were abused by a Boy Scout leader in the 1980s reached a financial settlement with the Boy Scouts of America.

The settlement includes a requirement that the Boy Scouts pay the state $2.25 million as 60 percent of the punitive damages in the case.

The amount of the settlement was kept confidential. It came five months after a Multnomah County jury awarded Kerry Lewis $19.9 million in damages for abuse he suffered at the hands of Assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes.

The trial in April featured for the first time the secret files – what the Boy Scouts calls its “Perversion Files” – with more than 20,000 pages of documents on child abuse, demonstrating that the organization was aware for decades of the size and scale of its child abuse problem.

Five other men also abused by Dykes in the same troop were scheduled to begin trials of their cases this fall.

“On behalf of all six of us, I can say that we are glad this is over,” Lewis said. “Three years of litigation has taken a huge toll on our lives and families, but we believe it was worth the struggle because the jury heard what happened and stood with us. We believed in the best ideals of Scouting – and still do – but we also want Scouting to act consistently with those ideals. Hopefully, they now will.”

Portland attorneys Kelly Clark and Paul Mones announced the settlement Wednesday morning in Portland.