Monday, September 17, 2012

Boy Scouts of American cover up two decades of sexual abuse.

By Greta McClain - September 16, 2012

A review of 1,600 confidential Boy Scouts of America files has shown that officials with the Boy Scouts not only failed to report alleged abuse to police, they often times tried to hide the abuse.

The LA Times reviewed the 1,600 confidential "perversion" files, which dated from 1970 to 1991, and found that Scouting officials frequently urged offenders who admitted to abuse to resign quietly and helped many cover their tracks.
The Scouts had fought to keep the files confidential according to an ABC report. A lawsuit against the Scouts forced the organization to admit to their existence. The files were used as a "blacklist" of people that were considered "unfit" to serve within the organization.
The files showed that there were approximately 500 instances where Scout officials were notified of possible sexual abuse by parents, boys and staff members. The majority of those reports were never forwarded to law enforcement.
The first report came in 1971 when a scoutmaster found a 12 year-old boy performing oral sex on an assistant troop leader at a Rhode Island Boy Scout camp. The 12 year-old told Scout officials "Mr. Lazzareschi made me do it to him," and Lazzareschi was called in to talk with Assistant Reservation Director Philip Tracy. Lazzareschi admitted his role in the act but said he'd never done it before. Tracy told Lazzareschi he could no longer serve in any adult capacity with the Scouts and that a report of the incident would be made with the Scout Executive and the National Office. The 12-year old was sent to counseling with Scout Chaplin Fr. Edmond Micarelli and was counseled about his "participation in the act". At the recommendation of Fr. Micarelli, the boys parents were not notified of the incident.
Yawgood Scout Camps August  23  1971 incident report
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Yawgood Scout Camps August, 23, 1971 incident report
Lazzareschi was later convicted of sexual assault in1997 and possession of child pornography in 2005. Micarelli was "blacklisted" from the Scouts in 1990 after a man came forward and told Scouting official the priest had raped him and his younger brother when they were boys.
According to Mercury News, five Boy Scouts filed detailed complaints against a Pennsylvania scoutmaster in 1976, accusing him of rape and other sexual abuse. The scoutmaster resigned, and the troop leader accepted his resignation with "extreme regret" and wished the man luck.
News paper report on Humphries arrest.
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News paper report on Humphries arrest.
In 1978, Jack Terwilliger, a Scout leader, ordered an interview of a 12 year-old scout after allegations were made about sex acts between Arthur Humphries, also a scout leader, and the 12 year-old. Humphries was not removed from the scouts and went on to abuse 20 Boy Scouts before he was arrested in 1984 for child molestation. When Humphries was arrested, Terwilliger told the local newspaper that no one had ever suspected Humphires of abuse.
In 1984 a Los Angeles Scout leader was caught by police with hundreds of photos of naked Scouts. Scouting officials worked closely with police and the county children services department to keep the case from becoming public and embarrassing the Scouts the LA Times report states.
Copy of the minutes from a February 1985 meeting between Boy Scout officials  law enforcement and De...
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Copy of the minutes from a February 1985 meeting between Boy Scout officials, law enforcement and Dept. of Children Services
In July 1987, an internal "news advisory" was sent to national leaders by a top official at Boy Scouts headquarters. The "advisory" was about allegations against a high-ranking Scout council leader in Milwaukee and said in part:
"Dr. Thomas Kowalski, chairman of health and safety for the Milwaukee County Council, one of the most prominent physicians in the state and one of the authors of the Wisconsin laws on child abuse, has been removed from his BSA volunteer position(s) following allegations that he made sexual advances to two 16-year-old youths at the council's summer long-term camp."
Kowalski admitted to masturbating while fondling the two boys. Wisconsin Scouting officials did report the incidents to police, but the parents chose not to press charges. In an effort to keep the incident from going public, the Scouts then turned to a local newspaper publisher who was also a board member of the Scouts. A memo by the Scouts stated:
The publisher "is aware of the situation but apparently will not be passing the information to his editors."
The files documented many more instances of sexual abuse and cover up. When confronted with the evidence and the LA TImes report, Boy Scouts of America issued the follow statement:
“The Boy Scouts of Amer­ica be­lieves even a single in­stance of ab­use is un­ac­cept­able, and we re­gret there have been times when the BSA’s best ef­forts to pro­tect chil­dren were in­suf­fi­cient. For that we are very sorry and ex­tend our deep­est sym­path­ies to vic­tims. We are com­mit­ted to help­ing mem­bers of our Scout­ing fam­ily who have suffered ab­use and as­sist them through a vari­ety of means, in­clud­ing coun­sel­ing.
We main­tain our In­eligible Vo­lun­teer Files solely to help our or­gan­iz­a­tion re­move and keep out in­di­vidu­als deemed to be un­fit role mod­els. The files help us to pro­tect youth and are one com­pon­ent of our broad­er Youth Pro­tec­tion pro­gram. Scout­ing has long main­tained mul­tiple bar­ri­ers to ab­use, of which the IV files are part. The files alone have lim­it­a­tions and were only meant to serve as a bar­ri­er to keep out un­fit mem­bers as part of a com­pre­hens­ive ef­fort to keep kids safe.
In the more than 30 years since these re­leased files were cre­ated, we have con­tinu­ously en­hanced our multi-tiered policies and pro­ced­ures, which now in­clude back­ground checks, com­pre­hens­ive train­ing pro­grams, and safety policies. We have al­ways co­oper­ated fully with any re­quest from law en­force­ment and today re­quire our mem­bers to re­port even sus­pi­cion of ab­use dir­ectly to their loc­al au­thor­it­ies.
We are com­mit­ted to the on­go­ing en­hance­ment of our pro­gram, in line with evolving best prac­tices for pro­tect­ing youth.”

Teams work on behalf of sex-assault victims


Although nothing can take away the pain of being sexually assaulted, people who work with victims in Wood County are trying to make coping easier.

Two groups, the Coordinated Community Response Team and Sexual Assault Response Team, are helping victims of sexual assault get through the legal process in a way that will reduce the chances of them feeling revictimized, said Teri Harcrow, chairwoman of the Coordinated Community team.

The bad news is that there are enough victims to keep the teams busy. In 2011, Wood County authorities filed 30 felony cases that involved a sexual assault, according to a Daily Tribune analysis of past reports. Experts say the number of cases reported represents only a small percentage of the actual sexual assaults that occur.


The Community Response Team includes members from the Wood County District Attorney’s Office, family court commission, The Family Center, law enforcement and the Ho-Chunk’s domestic violence center, Harcrow said. The team meets every other month, concentrating on domestic violence but also on sexual assault issues. Members seek to ensure that victims understand the system and have their needs met.

“We all have jobs to do, and it is hard to do them to the best of our ability when we have a victim feel like she is not being treated well,” Harcrow said.

The group also works to stay on top of law changes that can affect prosecution of people suspected of domestic abuse or sexual assault, Harcrow said.

The Sexual Assault Response Team includes nurses specially trained as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, commonly called SANE nurses. The team also includes members of law enforcement, a victim advocate and sometimes a counselor.

Nurses and police join forces because victims typically will either go to law enforcement or the hospital to report a sexual assault, said Brenda Fellenz, nurse manager for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners at Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield.

“When there is someone assaulted, much more needs to happen beyond the initial response here in the hospital,” Fellenz said. “We try to work together.”


The coordinated effort prevents victims from having to repeat their traumatic assault stories multiple times.

The specialized nurses and investigators also make sure the evidence and information is collected properly to make it useful, should the case to go trial, Fellenz said.

It’s important for the process to give victims back the control they lost during the assault, she said.

The Sexual Assault Response Team for Ministry Saint Joseph’s uses a victim advocate from the Family Center in Wisconsin Rapids. The team meets quarterly to discuss its work on behalf of victims, said Hillary Kevilus, sexual assault victim services coordinator at the Family Center.

“It gives everybody a chance to sit down and talk about what went wrong, what went right and what can we improve on,” Kevilus said.

All members of the Sexual Assault Response Team sign confidentiality agreements so that they can freely talk about any issues that arise, Kevilus said.

Team members also have been visiting schools in Wood County to talk to children about sexual assault and abuse, she said. They talk about where children who have been victims can go and to whom they can turn.

“It’s giving them that voice,” Kevilus said.

Currently, there is no Sexual Assault Response Team connected with Riverview Medical Center in Wisconsin Rapids, Kevilus said. However, the team invites hospital employees to quarterly meetings and hopes to create a team for the south end of the county, she said.

Riverview Medical Center does have two SANE nurses, said Tammy Barber, the hospital’s interim director of communications and business development.

http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/article/20120917/WRT01/309170173/Teams-work-behalf-sex-assault-victims?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE