PORTLAND, Ore., April 24 (UPI) -- An Oregon jury has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to pay $18.5 million to a man who had been sexually abused as a child by a scout leader.
The decision Friday ended a six-week trial. Lawyers representing the victim, Kerry Lewis, 38, had sought at least $25 million for what the jury had deemed in the first phase of the trial the Boy Scouts' "reckless and outrageous conduct," The (Portland) Oregonian reported.
The newspaper said the award is believed to be the largest ever in an abuse case against the Boy Scouts. Most sexual-abuse suits against the Boy Scouts of America since the 1980s have been settled quietly, Lewis's lawyers said.
Multnomah County Judge John Wittmayer ordered the Scouts to turn over more than 1,000 "perversion files" -- created from 1965 to 1985, the Boy Scouts said, to track suspected pedophiles and keep them from volunteering again. Lewis's lawyers said the Boy Scouts knew about problems with pedophiles but did not warn boys or their parents.
"What we saw here in Portland has really pulled back the covers on the Boy Scouts of America," said Paul Mones, one of Lewis's lawyers.
In a statement on its Web site, the scouting organization said: "The Boy Scouts of America and Oregon's Cascade Pacific Council defend themselves against a $29 million lawsuit by a man molested by volunteer Timur Dykes. The Boy Scouts of America has always stood against child abuse of any kind and is always looking for ways to improve its Youth Protection strategies."
