His Scout leader abused him in Missouri. Bankruptcy could delay his lawsuit for years
Nearly four years after a Missouri boy was sexually assaulted by a Boy Scout leader at summer camp, he and his mother filed a lawsuit against the organization.
Now, their attorney says, that lawsuit could be delayed or blunted because of the national Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy.
The lawsuit, filed last year in Jackson County Circuit Court, is one of many across the country describing a pattern of the Boy Scouts mishandling sexual abuse allegations over multiple decades. When the national organization filed for bankruptcy last week, it called for all victims to come forward.
The Missouri suit, filed against the Boy Scouts of America, the Heart of America Council based in Kansas City and former assistant scoutmaster Terry A. Wright, says the former Boy Scout leader molested the child at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in Osceola in 2016.
Last week, the lawsuit was moved to the U. S. District Court for Western Missouri. The Boy Scouts then requested that all such lawsuits be moved to U.S. District Court for Delaware to be litigated alongside the bankruptcy.
There, a federal judge could decide the outcome of these lawsuits, preventing some of the facts from being revealed as would happen if they were litigated individually. The amount of damages provided to victims may also be reduced.
“The Boy Scouts, if they get everything they’re asking for … they will be the biggest beneficiaries of this bankruptcy filing. It will definitely not be my client or any of the other victims around the country making claims,” the family’s attorney, Hans Van Zanten said.
“That is the entire strategy.”
In a statement to The Star, the Boy Scouts of America said the organization believes and apologizes to those harmed as scouts.
“The Boy Scouts of America is committed to fulfilling our social and moral responsibility to equitably compensate victims who suffered abuse during their time in Scouting, while also ensuring that we carry out our mission to serve youth, families and local communities for years to come. In order to meet these dual objectives, the national organization has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,” the statement said.
“Our plan is to use this Chapter 11 process to create a Trust that would provide equitable compensation to victims.”
The Star generally does not identify possible victims of sexual abuse without their permission.
Allegations of abuse
In 2016 Wright, then an active scout leader, ordered the 11-year-old boy to take his pants off and then molested him, according to the lawsuit. The child had come to Wright’s tent for help treating a rash.
About 6,600 scouts and 3,000 leaders attend the H. Roe Bartle scout camp each summer, according to the Heart of America Council.
In 2018 Wright was convicted of child molestation in Saint Clair County Circuit Court.
In a separate incident, he pleaded guilty in Jackson County on Feb. 11 to possession of child pornography and invasion of privacy.
Wright is serving a 10-year sentence at a Missouri prison.
In a statement to The Star the Boy Scouts said that “upon learning of these reports” Wright was removed from scouting and prohibited from future participation.
Wright had been involved in Boy Scouts since the 1980s, according to the lawsuit. He encouraged the plaintiff to join the troop just months before the assault.
“The Boy Scout Defendants knew or should have known that Defendant Wright was using his various scouting positions to engage in improper sexual contact with young boys,” the suit said.
“The Boy Scout Defendants have engaged in an on-going conspiracy of silence, hiding from Scouts and the families of Scouts that childhood sexual abuse is a pervasive problem for the Boy Scout Defendants.”
The lawsuit is one of at least six alleging child sexual abuse brought against the Heart of America Council since 1994. The Boy Scouts estimate between 1,000 and 5,000 victims nationwide will seek compensation.
Impact of bankruptcy
Van Zanten, the attorney, said he does not know whether other scouts have reported improper conduct from Wright. Those answers, he said, would come through the discovery of evidence, which he has not yet been able to do and is unsure he will be able to do because of the bankruptcy.
Additionally, the organization filed a motion Tuesday asking that the court delay for 180 days civil litigation of abuse allegations against the national organization and local councils.
If the Missouri case is moved to Delaware, Van Zanten said, a resolution could be delayed for years and his client will likely get a smaller settlement.
If the cases are pulled into the bankruptcy mediation, Van Zanten said, they will likely be settled in mediation instead of in a trial
A jury trial can lead to larger monetary judgment, he said.
“When you have a trial by jury that’s how you determine what the true value of the case is. A jury gets to decide that and they normally get it right,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
