Seattle Post Intelligencer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE — A man has sued the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts, claiming he and many other boys were abused by a church-sponsored assistant scoutmaster in the late 1970s.
The lawsuit was filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle – one of a handful filed up and down the West Coast on Monday by Portland, Ore., attorney Kelly Clark. The man, who remains unidentified, claims that he was abused more than 30 times in 1978-79 by Dustin Hall, who was picked for the assistant scoutmaster job by the church’s Shelton Ward near Olympia.
The plaintiff, who was 13 at the time, says the abuse haunts him still – as does his failure to protect others, some of whom were even younger.
Chuck Gordon, a Seattle-based lawyer for the church, said Monday the church would investigate the complaint and “act accordingly.”
It was not immediately clear how to contact Hall, whether he still lives in the area or whether he has an attorney.