PORTLAND, Ore. — An array of local authorities — police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors and town Boy Scout leaders among them — quietly shielded scoutmasters and others who allegedly molested children, according to a newly opened trove of confidential files compiled from 1959 to 1985.
At the time, those authorities justified their actions as necessary to protect the good name and good works of Scouting. But as detailed in 14,500 pages of secret "perversion files" released Thursday by order of the Oregon Supreme Court, their maneuvers protected suspected sexual predators while victims suffered in silence.
The files document sex abuse allegations across the country, from a small town in the Adirondacks to downtown Los Angeles.
At a news conference Thursday, Portland attorney Kelly Clark blasted the Boy Scouts for their continuing legal battles to try to keep the full trove of files secret.
"You do not keep secrets hidden about dangers to children," said Clark, who in 2010 won a landmark lawsuit against the Boy Scouts on behalf of a plaintiff who was molested by an assistant scoutmaster in the 1980s.
The files were shown to a jury in a 2010 Oregon civil suit that the Scouts lost, and the Oregon Supreme Court ruled the files should be made public. After months of objections and redactions, the Scouts and Clark released them.
The Associated Press obtained copies of the files weeks ahead of Thursday's release and conducted an extensive review of them, but agreed not to publish the stories until the files were released.
The new files are a window on a much larger collection of documents the Boy Scouts of America began collecting soon after their founding in 1910. The files, kept at Boy Scout headquarters in Texas, consist of memos from local and national Scout executives, handwritten letters from victims and their parents and newspaper clippings about legal cases. The files contain details about proven molesters, but also unsubstantiated allegations.
On many occasions the files succeeded in keeping pedophiles out of Scouting leadership positions — the reason they were collected in the first place.
But in many instances — more than a third, according to the Scouts' own count — police weren't told about the alleged abuse.
And there is little mention in the files of concern for the welfare of Scouts who were allegedly abused by their leaders. But there are numerous documents showing compassion for suspected abusers, who were often times sent to psychiatrists or pastors to get help.
In 1972, a Pennsylvania Scouting executive wrote a memo recommending a case against a suspected abuser be dropped with the words:
"If it don't stink, don't stir it."In numerous instances, alleged abusers are kicked out of Scouting but show up in jobs where they are once again in authority positions dealing with youths.
In a statement Thursday, Scouts spokesman Deron Smith said: "There is nothing more important than the safety of our Scouts."
He said there were times when responses to sex abuse allegations were "plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong" and the organization extends its "deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families."
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Names of Colorado men who volunteered with Boy Scouts who appear in the released records from the early 1960s through the 1980s
In Colorado
The released records show that local Boy Scout leaders had an evolving attitude toward pedophilia in the ranks. Cases in the 1960s resulted in immediate removal from contact with children, and the creation of a "confidential" file to prevent a suspected pedophile from volunteering anywhere with the Boy Scouts, but there is only occasionally an indication the alleged assaults were reported to police.
By the 1980s, scouting officials in Colorado were both removing accused scoutmasters from contact with children and immediately referring the cases to law enforcement officials, the files show.
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