OREGON
Reuters
By Teresa Carson
PORTLAND, Oregon | Thu Jun 14, 2012
(Reuters) – The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of 20,000 pages of confidential Boy Scouts of America records, dubbed the “perversion files,” documenting suspected or confirmed sexual abuse by the group’s leaders and volunteers.
The state high court ruled that the names of the victims and those who reported abuse be redacted before the six cartons of documents are made available to the public. Attorneys said it was not immediately clear whether the identities of accused perpetrators would remain secret.
The documents came to wide public notice when they were admitted as evidence in a 2010 civil trial in which an Oregon jury found the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), headquartered in Texas, liable in a 1980s pedophile case and ordered the organization to pay nearly $20 million in damages.
Child protection advocates have said the files proved that like the Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts exposed children to sexual predators for decades.
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