Boy Scouts sued over alleged sex abuse

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
March 7, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/03/06/anthony-c-flores-55-first-former-guam-altar-boy-also-sue-boy-scouts-america/98786944/

Anthony Flores, 55, recalls his childhood years during an interview in Tamuning on Friday, March 3, 2017. Flores said as an altar server and Boy Scout, he was sexually abused by Father Louis Brouillard, who was an adult leader during the outing. Photo by Rick Cruz

For about 40 years, Anthony Cruz Flores locked away in a dark corner of his memory, the sexual abuse by a priest who was also his scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts of America.

Flores kept the story even from his wife of 32 years, Doris, who’s been supportive of her husband’s quest for healing, closure and justice since he opened up to her this year.

“What made me decide to tell my story is that I read about two altar boys that were with me at the time,” Flores, now 55, said.

Flores said he is talking about Vicente G. Perez, 51, and Bruce A. Diaz, 47, two of the six who filed sex abuse lawsuits against Guam clergy in the U.S. District Court of Guam in January.

Perez and Diaz, in their lawsuits, said they were sexually abused by former island priest Louis Brouillard, the same priest Flores said sexually abused him around 1977 to 1978.

On Tuesday morning, Flores became the first clergy sexual abuse accuser on Guam to also name the Boy Scouts of America as a defendant in a lawsuit. His lawsuit also names Brouillard and the Archdiocese of Agaña.

Brouillard, according to the lawsuit, was an ordained priest of the Agana Archdiocese and a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America and its Aloha Council Chamorro District.

Among the most vivid details of Brouillard’s sexual abuse, Flores said, was the last night of a Boy Scout jamboree, when he was about 16 years old.

“Sometime early morning, I’m not sure what time, I felt something in my groin area," he said, adding that Brouillard was sexually molesting him, telling him, "It’s OK. It’s OK."

"But (I said) ‘No’. I kicked him. Actually, I kneed him — one is in his chest and one is in his face, and then he kind of scrambled out of my tent,” Flores said.

Seated beside him as he spoke were his wife, Doris, and one of his lawyers, Kevin J. Fowler, of the law firm of Dooley, Roberts, Fowler & Visosky, which has partnered with Seattle-based attorney Michael T. Pfau of the law firm of Pfau, Cochran, Vertetis, Amala.

“When the story came out in the PDN about Bruce and Ben, he broke down and told me, and I could see that he was really traumatized. But I told him, you gotta do what you gotta do. So he’s been moving forward,” Flores’ wife, Doris, said.

Flores filed his lawsuit in the Superior Court of Guam, where eight judges previously filed 84 separate notices, recusing themselves from hearing clergy sexual abuse cases.

The lawsuit demands a jury trial and an unspecified amount for general and special damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees and other costs.

“In approximately 1977 to 1978, Anthony was sexually abused by Brouillard multiple times in multiple locations. For example, Brouillard abused Anthony in a vehicle while traveling to a baptism and other church-related activities, and also abused him at the annual Boy Scout Jamboree. Anthony’s abuse included fondling, oral sex, and several incidents of swimming in the nude,” the lawsuit states.

Flores last week said Brouillard would tell the boys to swim naked in the river, in exchange for hamburgers and other snacks afterward.

Pfau said in a statement that in his experience handling many abuse cases against the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts, the institutions normally start by denying everything. He said the church usually tries to hide behind the First Amendment to avoid accountability for what it knew.

“If the Archdiocese wants to be transparent, it should release its files on Father Brouillard and other priests who have been accused of molesting children,” Pfau said. “The church has done this in Chicago and other places, so there is no reason the Archdiocese cannot do it here.”

Jeff Sulzbach, the scout executive and chief executive officer of the Boy Scouts of America Aloha Council, responded via an email.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our youth members and we are profoundly saddened when anyone uses their position to harm children. The Boy Scouts of America extends its deepest sympathies to any person who has been hurt by child sexual abuse. Any instance of child victimization or abuse is intolerable and unacceptable," Sulzbach wrote. "Upon learning of these reports, we took immediate action to preclude this individual from any further participation in the Scouting program.

It's not clear when the Boy Scouts took action against Brouillard.

Flores also is the first clergy sex abuse plaintiff represented jointly by law firms from Guam and the U.S. mainland.

Fowler, in a statement, said his law firm teamed up with Pfau in order to help child abuse survivors protect and exercise their rights. He said he hopes the lawsuits will lead to closure for Flores, other abuse survivors and the local community.

Gov. Eddie Calvo late last year signed a law, lifting the statute of limitations on civil cases alleging child sexual abuse. The law allows accusers to also sue the institutions they believe knew about and enabled the abuse.

“The recent change in the law for child sexual abuse survivors is important because their abuse was too often kept in the dark,” Fowler said. "A lot of abuse survivors do not realize until much later in life how badly they were harmed by the abuse, and taking control of what happened is usually the first step toward closure. The abuse survivors and our community deserve to know not just what happened, but how it happened and how it can be prevented in the future."

Pfau and his firm have represented hundreds of sexual abuse survivors across the United States, including many cases against the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.

The first 23 clergy sex abuse lawsuits on Guam were filed by former altar boys represented by attorney David Lujan, of Lujan and Wolff. 

Guam attorney Anthony C. Perez has partnered with James, Vernon & Weeks PA, a law firm with offices in Seattle and Idaho, and Hawaii-based law firm Rosenberg, McKay, Hoffman. The law firms said they plan to file similar lawsuits in the weeks ahead.

Flores, as a lead altar boy and a Boy Scout leader when he was 13 to 17 years old, said he felt a sense of guilt for not being able to fully protect the boys under his care, despite attempts to tell the head of the San Vicente Ferrer and San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada at the time, Monsignor Zoilo Camacho, about Brouillard’s abuse of another altar boy.

Flores, now living in Yona, said other altar boys at the time told him they saw Brouillard engaged in a sexual act with a boy.

He said he went to see Camacho, who he said snapped at him, told him to be quiet, and to get out of his office.

“He didn’t believe me because I didn’t see it. And if I didn’t see it, it’s not true. ... So in a sense I was called a liar and if I didn’t see it, it’s not true,” Flores said. “... I was the head (altar boy) so I ran to him but he didn’t believe me."

Camacho died in 2007.

And then, Flores said, Brouillard sexually abused him. He said he didn’t tell anyone about it because he already knew Camacho and other adults wouldn't believe him. He quit being an altar boy and left the Boy Scouts.

Flores said even his grandmother, a devout Catholic who went to church twice a day, didn’t believe.

“In a sense, I didn’t blame her for not believing me, but it kind of hurt. So I kind of shut that out, just kept it in the dark. I did contemplate suicide a few times, but it never happened, because I didn’t know if I was too scared or realized, why am I going to do it?” Flores said.

So for 40 years, he kept his story a secret.

Though Flores suppressed the memories, they partly shaped his adult life, he said. Flores said he is withdrawn, avoids most social gatherings, and is distrusting of priests and the Catholic church. 

“I learned to kind of suppress it. My grandmother, ... she’s a devoted Catholic. She would tell me to go to the church. And instead of going into the church, I went on top of the church. They had a ladder in the rear of San Vicente that accesses the roof. So my Mass was outside. I did not care to go into the church anymore. I don’t know what you would call it, but to me, the church is nothing. The words seemed nothing,” Flores said.

When the memories kept flashing back, triggered by his fellow altar boys’ stories, they kept him awake at night and are impacting his health, he said.

“And then I realized, because I was in the position of leadership, I could have done something. But I tried to, but nobody wanted to listen. And now that (Perez and Diaz) are confronting the church, I’m trying to support them and tell them that as a leader, I did try and that’s when I contacted the law firm,” Flores said.

Flores said after 40 years, he still hasn't talked to Diaz and Perez about their ordeal.

“If they see my name (in the paper), they would know who I am,” he added.

Flores said after talking about his secret some four decades later, he felt a sense of relief.

“It’s like a weight was lifted off my shoulder the day I was talking to (Fowler) about the subject. And after the meeting, I went outside and it’s like my eyes opened up. I felt light. I felt I could fly. I even had to walk around the building before I drove because I might try to make my truck fly. I just felt so relieved, it’s like spiritual,” he said.

Flores said sharing his story to the whole island and is hoping his fellow former altar boys understand that he tried to do something some 40 years ago, “But I was no match for the adults.”

Flores said he hasn't thought about forgiving Brouillard.

“I don’t know if you call it forgive, but I forgot, and now I’m remembering. I guess, as a Catholic, I should, but I can say is what I feel is the painful part. I can forgive, but I don’t know if I can forget it, now that it’s coming back. I have to try and suppress this memory again, but then again, age might help me with that, you know Alzheimer’s or what-not. I really can’t answer that question,” he said.

Brouillard has publicly admitted to sexually abusing boys when he was on Guam, from 1948 during his ordination, to 1981, when he moved to Minnesota where he moved from one church to another as a priest.

During a phone interview last year, Brouillard, now 95, said he would like to apologize to the boys he may have hurt.

In a signed affidavit in support of former altar boys’ clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Brouillard said the bishop at the time, Apollinaris Baumgartner, knew about his sexual abuse of children but only asked him to do more prayers as a penance.

At least 16 of the 24 clergy sex abuses cases filed on Guam name Brouillard as the priest who allegedly abused the former altar boys and former Boy Scouts.

Flores' lawsuit states the Boy Scouts had known since the early 1920s that men like Brouillard were using their positions as scout leaders to groom and sexually abuse Boy Scouts.

Between 1965 and 1985, the Boy Scouts created at least 1,123 “perversion” files for scout leaders who had molested one or more children, the Flores lawsuit says. That's an average of 57.8 new child-molesting volunteers per year, or more than one new child molester a week.

The lawsuit states the Boy Scouts’ internal desk manual for their “Ineligible Volunteer File” is a listing of names of those who have proven themselves potentially harmful as associates or leaders of youth and a detriment to the Boy Scouts. The majority of the cases on file are perversion cases, the lawsuit says.

For example, in 1971, the Chamorro Council scout executive, Roger Pelz, reported that the assistant scoutmaster of Troop 32, David Joseph Ellington, initiated sexual contact with two young boys, the lawsuit states. It adds that Ellington subsequently left the area and relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where he attempted to re-enroll in scouting.

“Mr. Flores alleges that despite knowing that more than a thousand men like Mr. Ellington had used scouting to sexually abuse children, the Boy Scouts never warned him, his guardians, or other children about the danger of sexual abuse in scouting,” a statement from Flores’ lawyers said.

Flores last week said Brouillard probably won't remember him after 40 years, but it's a battle worth fighting.

"I know it's going to be a good battle," Flores said. "But the more we have on our side, the more people who could come out, it would help to get closure."