CHILD USA<\/a>, a think tank that focuses on preventing child abuse and neglect. Some people never disclose what happened to them.<\/p>\n\u201cGrooming is very powerful. The predators who learn how to\u00a0groom\u00a0know how to isolate people\u00a0and know how to do it very well,\u201d said Dave Henson, one of the eight\u00a0“John Does” in Monday\u2019s suit in D.C.<\/p>\n
Henson, now 39, said he was abused by an assistant Scout\u00a0leader\u00a0over a span of five years, starting when he was 11. The grooming was so meticulous, Henson said, that he didn\u2019t realize the late-night touching that turned into penetration was abuse until years later, when he told his high school sweetheart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted\u00a0to be open and honest with her,\u00a0and said, \u2018Hey,\u00a0I’ve had a homosexual relationship, and she kind of looked at me weird.\u00a0I explained to her what kind of happened, she again looks at me\u00a0and said,\u00a0\u2018You didn\u2019t have a homosexual relationship; you were abused.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven after her revelation it didn\u2019t really sink in.\u00a0I didn\u2019t really understand why I had all these emotions of shame and guilt, which led to drinking, a lot of drinking,\u201d Henson said. \u201cThat\u2019s why these windows and statutes of limitations are so important, because it takes so long sometimes\u00a0to come to that realization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henson\u2019s attorneys are hoping to set a\u00a0new\u00a0precedent\u00a0for survivors who live in states\u00a0that have not\u00a0opened so-called “look-back windows” or changed their statutes.\u00a0The group, which has been running TV and Google ads encouraging victims to come forward, says it has\u00a0signed more than 1,600 clients since last spring, many of whom live in states with restrictive statutes of limitations.<\/p>\n
All eight\u00a0of the plaintiffs in Monday\u2019s suit, including Henson, live in states that have not yet opened windows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem with Boy Scouts is this is a national organization, and it\u2019s really a national problem,\u201d said attorney\u00a0Aitan\u00a0Goelman\u00a0of D.C.-based Zuckerman Spaeder, an Abused in Scouting member firm. \u201cTo have such disparate treatment of survivors based on an arbitrary geographical factor is not fair. It\u2019s not just.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goelman says D.C. is a proper venue for the suit because a\u00a0congressional charter incorporated Scouts\u00a0in the\u00a0nation\u2019s\u00a0capital\u00a0in 1916.\u00a0The charter also required an annual report to Congress on the activities of the organization.<\/p>\n
The suit, along with nearly all reviewed by USA TODAY, alleges that Boy Scouts knew it had a rampant child sexual abuse problem as far back as the 1920s\u00a0but concealed the issue to protect\u00a0its wholesome image. In several cases, survivors accuse the Scouts of failing to stop known abusers from returning to their ranks and abusing again.<\/p>\n
Dumas said her firm has successfully brought cases in Montana, Iowa, Idaho and Oregon on claims that Boy Scouts committed fraud by concealing their knowledge of the threat of sexual abuse within the organization.<\/p>\n
A suit filed in Arkansas in November alleges abuse against two former Scouts who say they were\u00a0assaulted by a leader who had previously been reported to the Boy Scouts\u00a0of America\u00a0for abuse in Georgia. According to the suit, the leader had\u00a0been added to\u00a0the ineligible volunteer files\u00a0but was later allowed to become a leader in Arkansas.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoy Scouts could have gotten ahead of this early on but literally chose not to,\u201d said\u00a0Mones, who\u00a0says his client\u00a0in San Bernardino\u00a0<\/strong>was abused up until 2018.\u00a0\u201cI believe they\u2019ve been trying to look at that problem, but the problem is that it\u2019s a day late and a dollar short.\u201d<\/p>\nThe organization has begun to show the strain of mounting legal bills. Last year, reports began to emerge of a potential bankruptcy filing. Boy Scouts has denied a filing is imminent but said it is exploring all available options.<\/p>\n
In October, the organization\u00a0raised annual membership fees from $33 to $60, and last month it confirmed it had mortgaged the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, one of its most prized properties where troops\u00a0from across the country go for days-long treks. It said similar liens are in place for other properties, according to the Associated Press<\/a>, including its headquarters in Irving, Texas, and bases in Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia.<\/p>\nOn Jan. 1, the\u00a0Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints followed through on its plan to pull hundreds of thousands of Mormon youth out of Scouts in favor of its own program. That\u00a0withdrawal means an 18% drop in already declining membership for Scouts, predicted to dip below 2\u00a0million for the first time since World War II.<\/p>\n
Cara Kelly is a reporter on the USA TODAY\u00a0investigations\u00a0team, focusing\u00a0primarily\u00a0on pop culture,\u00a0consumer\u00a0news\u00a0and\u00a0sexual violence. Contact her at\u00a0carakelly@usatoday.com, @carareports\u00a0or\u00a0CaraKelly\u00a0on WhatsApp.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nContributing: Marisa Kwiatkowski, USA TODAY;\u00a0Tom Kisken, Ventura County Star<\/em><\/p>\nUSA Today<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cara Kelly, Jan.7, 2020 WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013\u00a0Boy Scouts of America faces mounting legal liability as lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by leaders and volunteers continue to roll in, thanks in part to loosening statutes of limitations across the country. Today, lawyers with Abused in Scouting filed suit in Washington, D.C., on behalf of eight\u00a0men who say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9013,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004\/revisions\/9013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}