Three years after a New Hampshire scoutmaster resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct, he was prevented from signing on with a ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥-area troop - even after he had been acquitted of the charges, recently released case files from the Boy Scouts of America show.
The files document sex abuse allegations against Scouting volunteers including scoutmasters across the country. Termed the "confidential files" at Boy Scouts headquarters, they have been made public by the Los Angeles Times and attorneys involved in lawsuits against the organization. Some files date to the 1940s; others are from as recently as 2005.
While details were available for only seven of the 29 cases included from Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, they offer a glimpse into the variety of cases local Boy Scout officials dealt with and the way they reacted.
No pattern of cover-up emerges, though inclusion in the files seemed to have been spurred by newspaper reports about the accused individuals or criminal convictions, rather than earlier action. There is no evidence that a report from the Boy Scouts precipitated a criminal investigation.
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The case of the New Hampshire scoutmaster who later tried to volunteer in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ shows an organization grappling with how to resolve - internally and externally - questions about its members and how to coordinate its response in the pre-Internet age.
In 1971, the man was accused in New Hampshire of "unnatural and lascivious acts with a 16-year-old male," according to an account from the Concord, N.H., Monitor included in the file. He resigned but was later found not guilty of the crime, the file said.
In 1973, the executive of the council where the man had volunteered in New Hampshire, Don Warner, heard the man had been trying to get back into Scouting and took it upon himself to spread his concerns.
"I am afraid that (the man) will be getting into trouble again even though the court declared him innocent," Warner wrote to an official in the Boy Scouts' national office.
The letter gave the accused man's address as in Cortaro. On April 23, 1973, another national Scouts official, Paul Ernst, wrote to Paul Claussen, then head of the Catalina Council in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
"We would appreciate it if you would please investigate and advise us if he is registered with your council," Ernst wrote to Claussen.
The man registered as a volunteer the next month, and in August 1974, a local Scouts official wrote Claussen outlining the man's desire to return to the Scouts and his claim that it was unfair he was being banned. Another local Scouts official wrote to Ernst asking that they double-check the man's status.
"It would be a real shame if this man were wrongly accused," the letter said.
Ernst wrote back on Sept. 4, 1974, and instructed Claussen to reject the man "as he is on our confidential file."
"When informing (him) about this," Ernst wrote, "you might indicate to him that the National Council reserves the prerogative to accept those individuals it feels will best serve the interest of the organization."
The file was not the only one to show that alleged or convicted molesters tried again to volunteer with the Scouts - sometimes across state lines - only to be rebuffed.
"That is the purpose of it," said Ken Tucker, current Scout executive with the Catalina Council, of the "confidential file" system. "It's not to protect people who have abused kids. Quite the opposite."
It is current Boy Scout policy to remove volunteers immediately after an accusation or suspicion of misbehavior and to report the accusations or suspicions immediately to police, Tucker said.
He confirmed that the Boy Scouts' system is still in place and that the National Council maintains the power to decline someone's application to the group, even if the applicant was not found guilty of earlier charges.
"They do err on the side of caution," Tucker said. "It may affect adults negatively, but it's the safety of kids at stake."
There are also other policies now in place to protect kids, he said. They include:
• All volunteers go through a 50-state background check and training on the group's youth protection policies.
• There must be at least two adults on every campout, and no adult is to be alone with a child.
• Parents are encouraged to review special training at the front of the Scout handbook with their children. The organization also produces training videos.
• Parents are invited to attend all gatherings.
The released spreadsheet shows that the Boy Scouts opened at least 58 files on suspected child molesters with connections to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ troops between 1948 and 2005.
About half of those files involved Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ troops, and 20 files pertained to troops based in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
The records show that files were opened with increasing frequency in more recent times. Eighteen of the 29 Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ files represented in the spreadsheet were opened since 1990.
In some cases, a report to the Boy Scouts about official allegations against a scoutmaster revealed earlier criminal charges and even jail time that had not been disclosed.
When the Phoenix director of field service looked into allegations against Troop 206 Scoutmaster Jon Michael Blum in 1971, his inquiries to Phoenix police turned up two earlier convictions.
Blum had been charged with child molestation and sodomy in 1966 and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault, and he served a year in prison after a 1969 conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the records show.
Files for the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ cases show a similar pattern.
• In 1962, Boy Scout leaders in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ asked that Dwight Reed Patterson be put on the confidential list. He was at the time the assistant scoutmaster for local Troop 33.
He had been criminally charged with a "lewd and lascivious act with a 14-year-old Scout," the letter said.
The "confidential record sheet" kept on Patterson showed he had been arrested on child molestation charges two years earlier.
The file also included correspondence from 1969 between a Scout executive in Sudan, Texas, and the national headquarters. The central office instructed the Texas troop to decline Patterson's application because of his inclusion in the files.
Patterson applied again to the Scouts in 1983 in Dallas, the files show, and he was again turned down.
• In 1963, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥'s Scout executive wrote to the national office to ask that Eric Bruce Webb be put on the confidential list. Webb had been scoutmaster of Troop 96 from 1957 to 1958, and scoutmaster of Troop 213 from 1959 to 1963.
A brief news article about Webb's conviction for committing "lewd and lascivious acts with a 10-year-old boy" was taped to the letter.
• In 1965, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥'s Scout executive wrote to request that an assistant scoutmaster be put on the list because he was caught stealing and was "strongly suspected of being a homosexual."
The file shows the man tried to register with local Troop 368 in 1970 but was rejected.
• In 1966, George Fousse, a committeeman with Troop 115, was added to the list. He had been convicted and sentenced to prison for child molestation, the file said.
• In 1980, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥'s Scout executive wrote to the national office about the conviction of one-time Scoutmaster Miles Vaughn. Vaughn had been sentenced to a year in jail and 15 years of probation for molesting Boy Scouts.
• In 1984, William Cummings was put on the list. Attached to the letter were three ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Citizen articles describing the 10 sexual molestation charges involving three boys and Cummings' sentence of more than 15 years in prison.
The 13- and 14-year-old boys involved had testified about "skinny-dipping" and watching pornography at Cummings' home in 1982 to 1983. The arrest came after the boys told their parents, who called police, a news article said.
In handwriting next to the photocopied news article is the question, "Did Cummings have any other contact with boy except through Scouting?"
The Los Angeles Times website includes basic details on several more cases compiled by a Seattle attorney representing more than 100 alleged victims. The details include the year and troop number but no identifying information about victims or the accused.
The spreadsheet includes entries for files related to troops in Window Rock, Sahuarita, Sierra Vista, Fort Huachuca and Nogales, as well as in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
"That is the purpose of it. It's not to protect people who have abused kids. Quite the opposite."
Ken Tucker, current Scout executive with the Catalina Council, talking about the "confidential file" system
Contact reporter Carli Brosseau at cbrosseau@azstarnet.com or 573-4197 or reporter Tim Steller at tsteller¡¡@azstarnet.com or 807-8427.
