CALIFORNIA
San Diego Tribune

October 20, 2019

By Kristina Davis

Potentially thousands of plaintiffs are preparing to file against churches, the Boy Scouts, schools, youth sports organizations and other institutions with passing of AB 218

Matt Smyth’s secret was spilled his senior year of high school with a knock on the front door of his family’s Fallbrook home.

Two plainclothes sheriff’s detectives were investigating reports that Smyth’s former assistant scoutmaster — the one who’d driven kids to Boy Scout meetings, chaperoned campouts and hosted fishing outings on his bucolic property — had molested several boys.

To the shock of his parents, Smyth shared that he’d been a victim, too.