DELAWARE
The News Journal
Written by
Mike Chalmers
The News Journal
The grooming of young Melvin Novak as a sexual abuse victim began with role-playing games.
What would the teenager do, his scoutmaster would ask, to save a friend in trouble?
“Would you get undressed if that was necessary to save your friend?” he’d say, according to a lawsuit Novak filed Wednesday in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
The progressively sexual games were part of Novak’s initiation into a bogus “special brotherhood,” complete with achievement levels and gifts for reaching them, he said. “Everything had a reward at the end,” said Novak, now 28, of Newark. “From the time I was 8 years old, this guy was Santa Claus.”
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