Over 100 NY Boy Scout Leaders Accused Of Sex Abuse, Lawyers Say

NEW YORK — More than 100 Boy Scouts of America leaders in New York have been accused of sexual abuse over about the past seven decades, according to a list a law firm released Tuesday.

The firm, Jeff Anderson and Associates, has identified 130 scout leaders across the state who it says have been included in the Boy Scouts of America's "perversion files," a trove of sexual abuse allegations dating back to 1944. That figure includes about two dozen leaders in New York City.

The New York list is a small fraction of the more than 7,800 people whom the Boy Scouts believed were involved in the sexual abuse of children, according to court testimony earlier this year from a psychiatry professor who audited the files.

"The bad news is this is far from a full disclosure of what the Boy Scouts actually knew," said Jeff Anderson, whose Minnesota-based firm analyzed Boy Scouts files that have been made public.

The records, also known as the Ineligible Volunteer files, were created when the Boy Scouts learned of child sexual abuse within its ranks, Anderson said.

In many cases the organization pushed the scout leaders out but kept the accusations from the police and the public, according to the Los Angeles Times, which has reported extensively on the files. The Boy Scouts have used such records since 1919, according to the Times.

About 5,000 files have been made public through court cases brought by sexual abuse survivors, Anderson said. But many more likely exist, he said, and there are still many unanswered questions about what happened to each accused leader.

"We don’t know if the police know. We don’t know if they’re still scout leaders and scout masters," Anderson said. "All we know is that the Boy Scouts of America know, and they chose to keep that secret."

Anderson's firm disclosed the names of the alleged perpetrators that it has identified in New York, along with many of their troop numbers. Patch is not listing their names because it is uncertain whether each one has been criminally charged. It's also unknown how many of them are still alive, according to Anderson.

In a statement, the Boy Scouts of America said it has maintained a "Volunteer Screening Database" since the 1920s that includes people who have violated the organization's policies are suspected of doing so.

But the group said it has never "knowingly allowed" a perpetrator of abuse to work with kids. It also requires its leaders, staffers and volunteers to report allegations of abuse to law enforcement immediately, the statement said.

"Nothing is more important than the safety and protection of children in Scouting and we are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to abuse innocent children," the Boy Scouts said.

The revelations come about four months before New York's Child Victims Act takes effect in August. The law Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed earlier this year gives abuse survivors more time to bring criminal charges and civil lawsuits and opens a one-year window to revive old cases.

The law will allow abuse survivors to push for broader change by speaking out about what happened to them, said Bridie Farrell, the founder of the survivor advocacy group NY Loves Kids.

"It's not about holding the one troop leader, the one priest, the one coach," Farrell said. "... It's about, how are these organizations moving these players, these pieces on a chess board, around to harm our communities?"