Boy Scouts of America to pay $7m in sexual abuse case
Source: Associated Press
A man who says he was sexually abused by a Connecticut scout leader in the mid-1970s has won a $7m jury verdict against the Boy Scouts of America.
Lawyers for the man said the decision handed down on Friday in Waterbury superior court was the largest award for compensatory damages against the Boy Scouts’ national organization. The jury also found it liable for punitive damages, with the amount to be determined by a judge.
The man, known only as John Doe in court documents, alleges he was a member of a New Fairfield scout troop when its leader, Siegfried Hepp, sexually abused him three times. Hepp was not a defendant in the lawsuit.
The plaintiff’s lawyers, Paul Slager and Jennifer Cohen Goldstein, said evidence at the trial showed that another boy in the troop accused Hepp of molestation, and that Hepp pleaded guilty in 1999 to unlawful sexual touching of another minor and was a registered sex offender for a decade.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/16/boy-scouts-of-america-to-pay-us7m-in-sexual-abuse-case
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