Former Berkley Boy Scout Leader's Name Surfaces in Child Sex Abuse Documents

A Los Angeles Times database with information about thousands of leaders and volunteers ex­pelled or blacklisted from the Boy Scouts of Amer­ica amid sus­pi­cions of sexu­al ab­use includes a case from Berkley.

Last week, 14,500 pages of confidential files kept by the Boy Scouts of America on individuals suspected of child sex abuse were released by order of Oregon's highest court, according to the Associated Press.

Those files included 171 cases in Michigan, including one in Berkley.

A Portland, Ore., attorney, who won a landmark case against the Boy Scouts on behalf of a plaintiff molested by an assistant scoutmaster in the 1980s, released the documents to the public at kellyclarkattorney.com. The files cover a 20-year period, from 1965 to 1985.

But the Los Angeles Times, using the newly released files and data from other cases, built a database and interactive map of its own. 

The Boy Scouts of America posted the following statement from national president Wayne Perry about the documents, known as the "ineligible volunteer" files.

"There have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong. Where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest apologies to victims and their families."

In most cases, the men accused of sexual abuse were not reported to authorities; instead, their names were kept in a file to prevent them from volunteering with the organization again.

The allegations against a Berkley man who was a scoutmaster date back to 1970. He is accused of "improper relations with a minor."

Because many of the men listed in the decades-old Boys Scout files have not been charged or convicted of crimes, some media outlets, including the Boston Globe, have refrained from naming them without further investigating the allegations. Berkley Patch believes that is a reasonable precaution.

Other coverage

• Associated Press: "Perversion Files" Show Locals Helped Cover Up

Michigan Regional Editor Clare Pfeiffer Ramsey and Royal Oak Editor Judy Davids contributed to this report.