Losing on the Merits Badge: Scouts and Mormon Church Found Liable in Scout Abuse Case

The Boy Scouts lost a major case in Portland, Oregon with jurors awarding $1.4 million after finding Tuesday that the organization was negligent in allowing a Scout leader who was a sex offender after a three week trial.


The jury also found a basis for punitive damages, which will now be determined in a second phase of the trial.

At the heart of the case is former Scout leader, Timur Dykes, whom lawyers alleged was responsible for abuse of scouts. Even after he was removed as a leader, Dykes was allowed to continue as a volunteer.
Notably, the jury found the Boy Scouts of America 60 percent negligent and the Cascade Pacific Council — which oversees Scouting activities in the region — 15 percent negligent. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was found 25 percent negligent.

This is not the only case facing the Mormon Church and the Scouts, http://jonathanturley.org/2010/03/22/scout-scandals-details-released-in-another-abuse-case/
here.

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12 thoughts on “Losing on the Merits Badge: Scouts and Mormon Church Found Liable in Scout Abuse Case”

  1. I have a HUGE issue with the BSA’s stance on homosexuality. They were in denial for years about their internal problems with pedophilia while continuing their active prejudice against gays. Last week I played golf with Roy Williams who was the BSA’s Chief Scout Executive between 2000-07. I’m pretty sure that title roughly equates to CEO. Roy is a very nice fellow, but I had to tell him that I no longer support the Scouts and that I make it a point to tell Scouts soliciting donations outside the grocery store that I can no longer support them. When the Scouts’ parents ask why, which they almost always do, I tell them I cannot and will not support an organization that teaches intolerance, bigotry and hate and then hide behind a religious freedom justification of that intolerance. He was concerned that my opinion didn’t give adequate recognition to the fact that these people’s prejudice was based on their religion and that, therefore, it shouldn’t be held against them as they are simply following their faith. I told him that as a non-religious person I found it a pretty weak argument to use one’s faith to justify bigotry.

  2. That is way cool above. I usually got stoned with one match. Sometimes it took two to get stoned. Then the Bic lighter came along then it became can I flick your Bic, though this was never said to a Troop Leader or Priest.

  3. Ah, some of my fondest memories of childhood center around family camping vacations. My mother, father, 3 brothers and I would pack up the station wagon and head out for four to six weeks every summer to see the country. By the age of 12 I had been in every state in the lower forty eight and seen a good bit of Canada too. My brothers and I all wanted to be Park Rangers when we grew up. I can not start a fire with two stones but I can pitch a tent in mere minutes complete with ditch for rain runoff.

  4. Even when I was a kid the BSA movement seemed creepy to me. Also I can’t tie good knots, but I am a veteran camper and can create a bonfire with one match, or two stones.

  5. Shades of the Catholic church! Last time I heard, the BSA was still receiving federal money (faith-based funds). If nothing else, all largesse from the federal treasury to organizations that condone pedophilia should cease at once.

  6. It has been pointed out to me I just wake up to annoy. I thought that was in Vietnam. But hey, I never get confused with Jane.

  7. AY,
    What the hell … offend away … I love to read all the “stick-in-the-mud responses you get … they sputter, they spit, they lick … it’s great!

  8. This just Blows me away. I would say sucks but I don’t want to offend those not already offended.

  9. WTF, OMG. This is kinda scary and at the same time odd. I have an issue once a person has served a sentence and done all of he things required. But in cases such as this exceptions must be made.

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