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Four men from various states use new law to sue Boy Scouts in NJ for alleged sex abuse

By Abbott Koloff
NorthJersey.com
January 14, 2020

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2020/01/14/boy-scouts-sued-nj-alleged-sex-abuse-due-unusual-strategy/4459289002/

Larry Hahn, a former Boy Scout leader, is listed on the Wisconsin state sex offender registry. He is accused of abusing a boy in a suit filed Jan. 14, 2020 in New Jersey, where the Boy Scouts had its national headquarters decades ago when the alleged abuse took place.

[with video]

Four men from other states are using a new New Jersey rule to sue the Boy Scouts of America, alleging that Scout leaders sexually abused them as children — even though the alleged abuse took place in other parts of the country.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Superior Court in New Brunswick because the Boy Scouts of America had its national headquarters in Middlesex County decades ago, when the alleged abuse took place, according to court documents.

The men said they were abused as Scouts while growing up in Wisconsin, Indiana, Texas and Arkansas. Five Scout leaders are accused, including two who were criminally convicted of sex abuse in the 1980s. None of the plaintiffs were part of the criminal cases, their attorneys said.

If the New Jersey suit holds up in court, it could lead to a flood of similar lawsuits from around the country being filed in New Jersey, said Jason Amala, a Seattle attorney whose firm, PCVA Law, represents the plaintiffs.

He said his firm represents another 50 people who could bring sex abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts but who are barred by the statute of limitations in their home states and in Texas, where Scouting now has its national headquarters.

"Most of the time we have to tell people there's nothing we can do for them because of the statute of limitations," he said.

New Jersey extended its civil statute of limitations on Dec. 1 and created a two-year window in which anyone may bring a sex abuse lawsuit without being subject to a time limit.

Amala said that opened the way for some of his clients to sue the Boy Scouts, as long as they were abused during the time the organization had its headquarters in North Brunswick. He said this first filing appears to be "unique" in its approach.

The suit alleges that Scouting's top leadership made "reckless and negligent" decisions that "took place primarily in New Jersey" when the organization was based here from 1954 to 1979.

"I assume the Boy Scouts will fight us on this and say it isn't allowed," he said. "We feel we are procedurally fine to do this."

The Boy Scouts of America said in a statement that it "cannot comment on pending litigation," adding that "we care deeply about all victims of child abuse and sincerely apologize to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting."

The statement said the organization "has taken significant steps over many years" in its response to sexual abuse reports, adding that "there were some instances in our organization's history when cases were not addressed in a manner consistent with our commitment to protect Scouts."

Linda Silberman, a New York University School of Law professor and an expert on legal jurisdictions, said plaintiffs would "have to show that the claim is related to things that" the Boy Scouts "did while they were in New Jersey" for the case to go forward here.

The Boy Scouts, when the organization was based in New Jersey, placed one of the accused leaders on a list of people ineligible to be volunteers, according to a Scouting file posted on the PCVA Law website. The file says he was treated in 1972 and 1973 and allowed to return to Scouting "on the advice of the psychiatrist treating him and his minister," who said "he was allegedly cured."

One of the plaintiffs alleges he was abused by that leader years later in Indiana, starting in 1979.

The five Scouting leaders accused in the suit are on a list of thousands of people barred from Scouting after allegedly abusing children — the Boy Scouts' so-called perversion files that contain information about alleged abuse.

Many of the cases have been made public over the years as a result of lawsuits, and PCVA Law has posted some of the files on its website, including those related to Scout leaders accused in the New Jersey lawsuit.

One of them is Larry R. Hahn, of Appleton, Wisconsin, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of having sex with a minor and the sexual exploitation of children, according to the Scouting files and court records. 

The files include news reports of prosecutors saying Hahn abused as many as 16 children over 20 years. It also notes that years before, in the 1970s, several boys said they told a police officer that Hahn sexually assaulted a boy while wielding a knife, but nothing came of the report. State records show he spent a little less than four years in prison before being released in 2003, and is listed on Wisconsin's sex offense registry.

Another is Thomas Bowen, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted of 10 counts of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy, according to the files. He spent about 3½ years in prison before being released in 1988, Arkansas records show.

Amala said his firm, working with a New Jersey law firm, has filed about 40 sex abuse lawsuits in New Jersey since the new state law went into effect last month. They have been divided evenly between the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts, he said.

He said his firm previously filed lawsuits in a state where a religious order is based instead of where alleged abuse occurred. But he added that he could not think of a lawsuit filed in a state "where the headquarters has moved."

Contact: koloff@northjersey.com




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