Boy Scouts Lose Sex-Abuse Case

A state-court jury found the Boy Scouts of America negligent in a sexual-abuse case, awarding damages of more than $1 million to an Oregon man who said he was molested by an assistant scoutmaster here in 1983 and 1984.

The Multnomah County Circuit Court jury took less than three days to find that the Boy Scouts of America National Council of Irving, Texas, and the local Cascade Pacific Council failed to protect the 38-year-old plaintiff from abuse as a youth. The jury found the national body 60% negligent for the abuse and the local council just 15% negligent, assessing economic damages of $840,000 and $210,000, respectively.

Deliberations on punitive damages—the plaintiff's attorneys are asking for $25 million—resume next week.

Attorneys arguing for the plaintiff, Kerry Lewis, called Boy Scouts officials reckless in permitting an assistant scoutmaster named Timur Dykes to work with a local troop even after Mr. Dykes had admitted to a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that he had molested Boy Scouts in the past. That denomination, known as the Mormons, had sponsored the troop to which the plaintiff belonged. The jury found the church 25% responsible for negligence, but since it had already reached a cash settlement with Mr. Lewis, the church won't make any additional payment after Tuesday's verdict.

Timur Dykes has been convicted of sex abuse dating back to the early 1980s.

As with the abuse scandal roiling the Catholic Church, the Portland case against the Boy Scouts drew national attention, in part because it was one of the very few times jurors have been allowed to review secret "perversion files" the Boy Scouts compiled against its own membership.

The national organization in the past has tried to keep those files out of court proceedings, but lost an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court last February that would have kept confidential its files on pedophiles dating back to 1964. During the trial, attorneys for the Boy Scouts argued that the files demonstrated the lengths Boy Scouts officials have gone to police their ranks and keep suspected pedophiles away from children.

Attorneys for the defendants declined to comment, citing the coming deliberation on punitive damages. The Boy Scouts of America issued a statement on its Web site denouncing the jury's decision.

"We are gravely disappointed," the scouting organization said. "We believe that the allegations made against our youth protection efforts are not valid. We intend to appeal."