BOY SCOUTS HIT WITH NEW OREGON ABUSE CASE

(From Original Press Release)

BOY SCOUTS HIT WITH NEW OREGON ABUSE CASE

CORVALLIS, OREGON, DECEMBER 4, 2012

Reference:
Henry Doe v. Boy Scouts of America et al.
Benton County Circuit Court

For further information contact:
Kelly Clark
(503) 306-0224 (office)
(503) 407-7381 (cell)
kellyc@oandc.com

CORVALLIS, OREGON – The Boy Scouts of America was the subject today of a new childhood sexual abuse lawsuit, filed just weeks after a Portland law firm publicly released over 1,200 secret internal BSA files on abuse. The lawsuit was filed in Corvallis, Oregon, on behalf of a man proceeding under a pseudonym as “Henry Doe” against the Boy Scouts of America, the Oregon Trail Council, and First United Methodist Church of Corvallis, which sponsored the troop out of which the abuse occurred, according to Kelly Clark of Portland’s O’Donnell Clark & Crew LLP, which regularly handles childhood sexual abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts, the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church, and other related youth organizations. It was Clark, along with Portland attorney Paul Mones, who released the 1,200 “perversion files” in October pursuant to a court order, files which revealed a lengthy history in scouting of child sexual abuse, with scouting professionals frequently failing to report such abuse to law enforcement and often attempting to keep it secret. The release of the files generated international publicity and focused anew attention on the problem of abuse in scouting.
“Today’s suit is another example of a young boy whose trust in his Scout leader and in the Boy Scouts of America was betrayed,” said Clark. The suit named as the alleged perpetrator a former Scoutmaster named JJ Jones, who was troop leader for Troop 2 in Corvallis. The suit alleges that when the plaintiff was approximately 11 years old, for about a year he was molested and abused by Jones on over 50 occasions, occurring in an office at the church as well as on camping and hiking trips with the scouts, including one at Camp Cone, a Scout camp owned by the Oregon Trail Council. The allegations of abuse are quite severe, including “fondling, masturbation, oral sex and anal sex, some of which was brought about by force and/or included threats of physical violence.”

Also significant to the case is that Jones, prior to becoming Scoutmaster for Troop 2, was affiliated with Troop 186 in Corvallis, whose scoutmaster was William E. Tobiassen, who was himself the subject of criminal investigation and prosecution, as well as protracted litigation against the BSA in the 1980s. Those allegations are that Jones, during his time in Troop 186, knew that Tobiassen was molesting children but failed to report the abuse.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, now 39 years old, was quoted, according to Clark as follows: “I am incredibly saddened that the values I was taught as a Scout were compromised–and the experience so many Scouts seek robbed of me–by reckless individuals and careless organizations whose primary responsibility is this stewardship of young men. The abuse of children at the hands of those they trust must stop, and those who knowingly allowed harm to occur to me and countless others must be brought to justice. My goal is to help implement change that will protect Scouts in the future, insuring that they are guided in safe, secure environments by wellvetted individuals who can teach the skills that Scouting is supposed to teach.”

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