Deadline nears for national Boy Scouts sex abuse lawsuit

By Sally Krutzig
Post Register
November 10, 2020

https://bit.ly/3eUCccU

The Grand Teton Council — Boy Scouts of America building is seen in Idaho Falls on Friday, Nov. 6, 2020. Photo by JOHN ROARK

Fifteen years ago, Adam Steed came forward to the Post Register with his story of abuse.

Steed detailed his experiences of sexual assault at the age of 14 by Brad Stowell, a Boy Scout counselor, while at Camp Little Lemhi in Swan Valley in 1997. The Post Register’s six-part “Scouts’ Honor” series investigating Stowell and the cover-up of his crimes by many connected to the Boy Scouts of America sparked outcry from all directions in eastern Idaho.

The Steed family learned that the Boy Scouts had settled claims from lawsuits alleging Stowell had abused other boys and gotten the lawsuits dismissed. When one of those court files was finally made public in January 2005, “it revealed that before the Scouts settled the suits and paid the victims, Stowell had testified under oath that from 1988 to 1997 he molested at least 24 boys, many of them Scout campers,” the Post Register reported.

Steed’s story put a harsh spotlight on something many in the community were not ready to hear.

“We had tons of backlash (at the time). It was people who were well-connected with the prosecuting office, with Scouting, with different church leaders. A stake president came to testify in defense of Brad Stowell,” Steed said in an interview about a documentary on his story.

The Scouts’ Honor series was one of the earliest reporting on the abuse happening within the organization. Despite the backlash, institutions across the region, state and country began a conversation that continues to this day because of the courage Steed and his family showed by exposing the abuse.

The backlash wasn’t directed at the Steeds alone. The Post Register also endured the wrath of people defending the cultural institution of scouting.

But the articles and Steed’s story unleashed a flood of changes in the organization.

“The people that get a lot of credit to my mind are a bunch of Mormon moms. While the defenders of scouting were calling the Post Register all kinds of names, I was getting this very quiet message from these moms saying, ‘Keep going. You guys are doing the right thing,’” said Dean Miller, who was editor of the Post Register at the time.

The publishing of Scout’s Honor soon influenced others who had experiences similar to Steed’s to come forward. Even a local police chief at the time came out with his own story of abuse.

“We had stories come to us at the paper. Things kept spreading. There were more and more examples of it,” Miller said.

In March 2007, Steed’s father spearheaded a bill that ultimately led to an Idaho law giving prosecutors up to four years to criminally charge an adult who is made aware of sexual abuse but does not report it within 24 hours. Prior to this law, prosecutors had only one year to charge adults.

Now, survivors are once again using the law to obtain justice for the abuse they suffered within the Boy Scouts of America. Nov. 16 is the last day for victims to join a lawsuit against Boy Scouts of America and receive a settlement for any abuse suffered within the organization.

The Boy Scouts of America’s Grand Teton Council reached a settlement with the Steeds in December 2007.

More than 10,000 people have joined the lawsuit thus far, said Timothy Kosnoff, an attorney with Abused in Scouting, told the Los Angeles Times in October. The approaching deadline date appears to have pushed victims to come forward in an unprecedented number. Kosnoff told the L.A. Times he would not be surprised to see up to another 40,000 people file by next week.

It is predicted to be the largest child sexual abuse settlement in American history.

Journalist Patrick Boyle has spent years covering sexual abuse within Boy Scouts and wrote the book “Scout’s Honor: Sexual Abuse in America’s Most Trusted Institution.” He found there were nearly 2,000 known cases of abuse prior to 1994. However, the public was largely unaware of the problem. It wasn’t until cases such as Steed’s made their way to the press and the courts that change began happening within the organization.

“For a long time, the Boy Scouts did the minimum they had to do to show that they were doing something. And the lawsuits and the publicity combined up to a point where they had to start trying to do the maximum, to start going well above and beyond what they had to do, and it seems to me that they’re sort of trying to do that now. But they were forced to. Say what you want about litigation and lawsuits and the press, but the fact is the lawsuits and the publicity changed the Boy Scouts just like they changed the Catholic church. And that’s sometimes what it takes,” Boyle said in a 2013 interview with Youth Today.

As the Post Register reported in 2012, “The Boy Scouts’ response to the discovery of molesters in their ranks has drawn widespread praise. The policies they put in place to avoid abuse of Scouts include background checks on counselors and other adults, youth protection training for Scout leaders and requirements that at least two adult leaders attend all activities with Scouts.”

Boy Scouts documents have revealed more than 12,000 Boy Scouts were molested by approximately 7,800 abusers within the organization, according to court filings. The records of abuse date back to the 1920s. Many of those cases come from the infamous internal file on ineligible volunteers. The document was nicknamed the “Perversion Files” by many leaders within the organization before its existence was made known to the public. A court ordered the Boy Scouts of America to release the files in 2012. The released document was more than 20,000 pages and contained thousands of abuse incidents. The L.A. Times has created a database of 5,000 adults who the organization removed after they were suspected of sexually abusing children.

“The years have proven us right. There was a big problem that Scouting needed to solve, that they had mishandled. I still, to this day (think) how much better would it have been if scouting had embraced the Steed boys and celebrated their courage … and opened their arms to that instead of circling their wagons to protect their leaders,” Miller said.

After years of lawsuits by abuse survivors, the Boy Scouts of America announced on Feb. 17, 2020 it had filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. As a result, the bankruptcy court set the Nov. 16 deadline for victims to file a claim of sexual abuse by a Boy Scouts of America volunteer or employee.

“The BSA is committed to fulfilling our social and moral responsibility to equitably compensate victims who suffered abuse during their time in Scouting while also ensuring that we carry out our mission to serve youth, families and local communities for years to come,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement about the lawsuit.

The snowball Steed’s story put in motion in 2005 has not stopped rolling. A documentary film called “Church and the Fourth Estate” about Steed premiered at Sundance this year. It told the story of his abuse and the backlash he received from his community and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sponsored many Scout troops in the area at that time. A lawyer involved in the current sex abuse lawsuit told Steed he believed that approximately 500 people came forward as a result of seeing the film.

“The survivors did all the hardest work on this. The Steeds and all the other kids we talked to, they really deserve all credit possible for making this something that everyone would talk about,” Miller said.

Seeing the simple act of sharing the truth inspire others is what keeps Steed going. It has never, not in any of the last 15 years, become easy. But, said Steed, it has been worth it.

“Talking about the sexual abuse that happened to me, it’s like climbing a huge mountain every time. It’s something I don’t want to do right away, but I look at the big picture, how many lives it can help, what it does is it brings people forward who have a hard time coming forward,” Steed said.

Steed came forward long before the Perversion Files were released. Long before the LDS Church severed ties with Boy Scouts of America. Long before the Me Too Movement. He is hopeful that things won’t be difficult for survivors forever. Perhaps as more victims tell their stories, more people will be willing to listen. It is, after all, no longer 2005.

“It just became so apparent to me now that society is getting ready to help male victims of child abuse come forward. Before we couldn’t do that, we just couldn’t get there because of all the stigma and confusion that was fostered. And we’re starting to get ready for that. It’s beautiful,” Steed said.