Boy Scouts Sexual Abuse Files

For decades, the Boy Scouts of America kept secret files of accused pedophiles to ban them from volunteering in troops around the country.

An Oregon Supreme Court decision to release 20,000 pages of files about molested Boy Scouts likely will have two effects: First, it will continue to embarrass the 102-year-old Boy Scouts of America, which has worked vigorously to distance itself from a dark chapter in its past.

Second, because the files outline a widespread problem of child sex abuse and the organization’s attempts to cover it up — the ruling could open the floodgates of litigation. Attorneys of men who were abused as Scouts will have precisely the evidence they need to sue the Texas-based youth organization for many millions of dollars in punitive damages, legal experts say.