RHODE ISLAND
The New York Times
January 28, 2021
By Neil Vigdor
James Glawson, 76, sexually assaulted six young men, including one who is developmentally disabled, Rhode Island authorities said.
A former chaplain for the Boy Scouts in Rhode Island was sentenced on Thursday to 40 years in prison after pleading no contest to charges that he sexually assaulted six young men, the authorities said — the latest reckoning for a national scouting movement beleaguered by sex-abuse claims.
The ex-chaplain, James Glawson, 76, of Exeter, R.I., volunteered for the Boy Scouts from 1980 to 2018 and served as an assistant Catholic chaplain at the scouting camp in Hopkinton, R.I., according to the Rhode Island State Police.
Investigators said that Mr. Glawson came to their attention in 2019 when staff members at a Rhode Island group home reported that he had had inappropriate contact with an 18-year-old developmentally disabled resident.
The victim told the police that he had been sexually assaulted several times over the years by Mr. Glawson, who the authorities said later admitted abusing the resident and several other young men during the 1980s while he was a scout leader. It was not immediately clear if the group home resident had ties to the Boy Scouts.
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