For decades, Gill Gayle thought his story of being sexually abused in Boy Scouts was unique.
Two Scout leaders abused him in the 1970s, Gayle said. The incidents were unrelated: The men lived in different cities in Alabama and didn’t know each other.
Gayle was in sixth grade when the first scoutmaster fondled him while on a camping trip. He repeated the abuse over months. After Gayle’s family moved during his eighth-grade year, he said he woke up at the second scoutmaster’s house to the man “violently raping” him.
Years later, after therapy helped him deal with depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts and attempts, Gayle, now 58, knows his story is all too common.
On Monday, Gayle’s claims were among the nearly 90,000 filed by the deadline in the Boy Scouts’ federal bankruptcy case – the largest-ever child sex abuse case involving a single national organization.
“There’s nothing about me that’s the least bit unique,” he said. “There needs to be a face to this, not some abstract idea.”
Those who missed the Nov. 16 deadline are barred from filing suit against the national organization in the future. As a result, filing of proof of claim forms accelerated in recent weeks, and especially over the weekend. Lawyers for abuse survivors on Friday said about 63,000 had been filed and they then expected the total to exceed 70,000 by the deadline.
The total claims far exceed the number expected when Boy Scouts of America first filed for bankruptcy in February. At the time, the organization said it faced 275 lawsuits in state and federal courts, plus another 1,400 potential claims.
More:Boy Scouts files Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of thousands of child abuse allegations
The Boy Scouts organization has faced civil litigation since a 2010 case resulted in $19.9 million in damages, the largest ever for a single individual against the organization. As a result of that case, the Scouts were forced to release more than 20,000 confidential documents.
Those records, which became known as the “perversion files,” showed the youth organization tracked suspected and known abusers but didn’t consistently report them to the police or notify the public.
“Even for me, who probably has been doing this since the beginning, I couldn’t see it coming,” said Paul Mones, who tried that landmark 2010 case. “Not these numbers.”
Mones represents about 400 clients in the case.
The majority of claims, more than 55,000, came from the Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice, a group of 10 law firms that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein last month allowed to join mediation discussions.
The size of the coalition gives it significant influence in a vote on any potential settlement.
In a statement, the Boy Scouts said, “We are devastated by the number of lives impacted by past abuse in Scouting and moved by the bravery of those who came forward. … The response we have seen from survivors has been gut wrenching. We are deeply sorry.”
Lawyers representing the potential victims say the total is likely an undercount of boys victimized in Scouting over the organization’s 100-year history.
Current membership is fewer than 2 million, but the organization said it had more than 4 million members at its peak in the 1970s. In general, sexual abuse is often not reported and clients have told the attorneys that they know of others who were abused but would not come forward.
Mones said his clients range from teenagers to men older than 80. The vast majority of their allegations were never before reported, he said, and only about a quarter of them were abused by people in the “perversion files.”
Ken Rothweiler, whose group Abused In Scouting represents 17,000 clients, pointed to research by Marci Hamilton, chief executive officer of CHILD USA, a nonprofit think tank that works to prevent child abuse. Hamilton has been studying abuse cases in Boy Scouts based on data shared by Abused in Scouting.
“Any time you have an organization whose goal is to take young boys into the woods, sleeping in tents, being away from their parents, where you have one person being an adult that is responsible for those boys in that type of isolated environment, that’s a recipe for pedophilia,” Rothweiler said. “A lot of other groups don’t have that model. It really is a recipe for disaster.”
What’s next?
The case moves forward on two parallel paths. On one, claims will be reviewed by third-party advisers, the Boy Scouts said, “in order to uphold the integrity of the process.”
On another, the parties work toward a settlement. Since filing for bankruptcy, the Boy Scouts has proposed a fund to compensate survivors. The organization has not said how much money will be available in that fund, and figuring out that total will take months.
More:Boy Scouts bankruptcy: What we know about victims, assets and the future of scouting
Under a reorganization plan in the bankruptcy, the Boy Scouts, as the debtor, must find a way to pay its creditors, including the abuse survivors, and stay in business.
How much money is at stake?
This is likely to become the contentious part of upcoming mediation talks. Any settlement would draw from several assets, some of which would be disputed.
The national organization would have to contribute from its financial and other assets, which includes real estate as well as paintings by Norman Rockwell. In its bankruptcy filing, the Boy Scouts estimated it had about $1 billion in assets.
More:Bankrupt Boy Scouts may need to sell Norman Rockwell art to pay sexual abuse victims
The national council claimed $240 million in land assets in its 2018 tax filings. But regional councils own much of Boy Scout property, with the USA TODAY Network finding $101 million in local councils’ property in New York alone.
Attorneys for survivors argue those regional properties should be used for a settlement fund, while the Scouts say those are separate and should not be included. Attorneys for survivors are also expected to argue that assets of chartering organizations, such as churches, should be included as well.
The Boy Scouts’ insurers would also pay part of any proposed settlement. In the past, they have refused to pay claims because they said the Scouts did not take effective preventative measures to stop the abuse.
“How much of that can be contributed in terms of getting this thing resolved is something that we’re going to be figuring out over the next couple of months,” Rothweiler said.
Lawyers for survivors said they could not estimate how big any settlement would be. Earlier in the case, Silverstein ruled that law firm advertising should remove false and misleading claims, including some ads that stated a proposed trust was pegged at $1.5 billion.
“With them filing for bankruptcy, we’ve been left where the only adjudication we’re offered is this,” Gayle said. “My hopes for bankruptcy are that the price paid is severe enough to cause systematic changes, if they in fact survive at all.”
What does this mean for Boy Scouts’ future?
The Boy Scouts have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a process that would allow the organization to settle its debts and reorganize. Several other organizations have taken the same legal path when faced with mounting abuse litigation, including USA Gymnastics and dioceses in the Catholic Church.
Bankruptcy cases can drag on for years in some situations. But lawyers for survivors said they believe the Scouts risk running out of money if they don’t resolve this case in the coming months.
Rothweiler said his clients are about evenly split on whether they want the Boy Scouts to continue as an organization or not.
“The Boy Scouts also have to come out of this bankruptcy if they want to exist as an organization,” Mones said. “You can’t stay in Chapter 11 forever, so the reorganization has to act in some expedited and clear way in order for the Boy Scouts to survive.”
Cara Kelly contributed to this story.
Rachel Axon is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team, focusing primarily on sports and gender issues. Contact her at raxon@usatoday.com or @rachelaxon, or on Signal at (352) 234-3303.
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/11/16/boy-scouts-face-nearly-90-000-sex-abuse-claims-bankruptcy-case/6284153002/
Comments