The names of nine men from Thurston and Pierce counties were on a list released Thursday of 1,250 Boy Scout volunteers from across the nation accused of sexual abuse or other violations that made them unfit to work with kids.
The local men either worked with or applied to be volunteers with Pierce and Thurston county Scout troops from 1971 to 1990, according to records released by Oregon lawyer Kelly Clark, who forced the Boy Scouts of America to unveil its previously confidential list of “Ineligible Volunteers.”
The seven local volunteers included an assistant Scout leader from Buckley dismissed in 1988 after allegations came to light he’d molested three children – none of them Scouts – and a former medical technician from Tacoma accused of inappropriately touching a Scout during a summer camp in 1989.
Mason County sheriff’s detectives investigated the alleged molestation at the summer camp, but no charges were filed. The local Scout council kicked the man out of Scouting in July 1990 after giving him a chance to appeal, according to the records.
None of the other local men was accused of using his position to abuse Scouts.
The Olympian is not naming them because none was ever convicted of abusing a Scout.
Other local Scout leaders not named in the list released Thursday have been accused of abusing their charges.
Two men claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that a Lakewood Scout leader abused them decades ago when they belonged to a local troop. That case settled out of court in February. In May, six men filed suit in Pierce County Superior Court against the Boy Scouts of America, contending they’d been sexually abused by a Tacoma Scout leader who died earlier this year.
Local men on the list of “ineligible volunteers” were:
• A Fort Lewis-based soldier accused of attempting a sex act with a 9-year-old boy in 1970. He was placed on the list in 1971.
“His stepmother is aware of these tendencies and he promised her he would not get involved in Scouting again,” according to a letter sent to the national headquarters from the Oregon Trail Chapter in August 1971. “Now the word is that he is deeply involved in Scouting in Vietnam.”
• The assistant Scout leader in Buckley who was dropped in 1988 after the allegations of his abusing young relatives came to light. The local council sent him a letter saying “your conduct with boys is possibly harming them even if they were not Scouts …” The letter continued: “This information is confidential, and we only wish to have you stop all Scouting activity.”
The council executive later persuaded the person making the allegations to go to police, the records show. Seven years later, the former assistant leader was convicted of possessing child pornography, court records show.
• A Washington state trooper who was added to the list in 1988 after being convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old girl and being sentenced to nine months in jail. It was unclear from the records what position he held in Scouting. The girl he had sex with was part of a law enforcement ride-along program for youth.
• A Lacey man who applied to volunteer with the Scouts and was denied in 1990 after it came to light he was on federal probation and under investigation for a possible sex crime in Thurston County.
• A Rochester assistant Scout leader who was added to the list in 1989 after being convicted of indecent liberties with a young boy who was not a Scout.
• An Olympia man added to the list in 1989 after getting into a dispute with Child Protective Services over his treatment of foster children in his care. He was never accused of anything illegal.
• A Tacoma teenager who was denied entry into Scouting in 1989 after a background check revealed he’d been convicted of rape, assault and criminal trespass as a juvenile and served 112 weeks in juvenile detention.
• A Spanaway Scout leader and church leader kicked out in 1990 after being convicted of molesting a 14-year-old family friend he sometimes drove to church events.
• The medical technician accused of touching the Scout at camp in 1989. The molestation allegations against the man were never proven, but the local council cut him loose cited a “statement from parent indicating child molestation of her son …”
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644 adam.lynn@ thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/crime @TNTadam
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