By
Attorney Rees Lloyd
April 19, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
The Boy Scouts of America is perhaps the finest organization ever created to assist American boys to become responsible men and citizens. Over a million adults annually contribute uncountable volunteer hours to the BSA, assisting almost three million Boy Scouts.
However, among those millions of patriotic men of the BSA, are a very few predatory homosexuals who insinuate themselves into the BSA to prey sexually on boys.
As a result, predatory homosexuals with views on sex like those of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), predatory liberals epitomized by the ACLU – --- which represents and defends NAMBLA while attacking the BSA, and predatory lawyers posturing public interest purity while raking in fees at the expense of BSA and taxpayers, combine to damage if not destroy the BSA through lawsuits which place the BSA between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
That is, BSA, on one hand, is assailed by lawsuits – most by the ACLU -- which claim BSA is composed of loathsome homophobes who discriminate against homosexuals by barring them from positions as adult Scout leaders
On the other hand, BSA is attacked by lawsuits seeking millions from BSA for allegedly failing to protect boys from homosexual predators.
Thus, the BSA appears to be damned if it bans homosexuals as adult volunteers, and damned if it doesn’t.
An illustrative case is a lawsuit in Portland, Oregon, which has gained national attention – because the verdict is being used to predict a tsunami of similar suits.
Plaintiff Kerry Lewis, now 38, alleges that 27 years ago, in 1983, when he was 11, he was molested by an “Ass’t Scout Master” named Timur Dykes, convicted pedophile. According to news reports on the trial in the “Oregonian,” Lewis claimed in testimony that on perhaps twenty occasions, apparently, with parental consent, he slept-over at Dykes abode, usually with other Scouts on weekends. But that only Lewis slept in bed with Dykes. Lewis reportedly claimed that the molests consisted of four occasions in which he awakened to find himself on top of Dyckes, who “was aroused;” and another occasion when Dyckes put his hand up Lewis’ short pants. The reports do not include claims or testimony by Lewis of penetration or oral sex.
Although Lewis apparently never complained to the BSA about nor revealed Dykes’ molests, Lewis claims in his lawsuit and testimony that he recently realized his failures in life, including his drug addiction, and difficulty in making lasting relationships, are all caused by Dyckes’ homosexual molest a quarter of a century ago.
Lewis filed suit last year at the age of 37. (Oregon extended the statute of limitations to the age of 40 for such suits). Lewis sought some $4-million in damages. After a four-week trial, a Portland jury voted 9-to-3 to award Lewis $1.4-million. The percentages of responsibility for the molest by homosexual predator Dyckes were assessed as follows: BSA, 60%; local BSA affiliate Cascade Pacific Council 15%; and the Mormon Church, which sponsored Lewis’ troop, 25%.
Thus, the BSA will have to pay some $1.05-million (75%) of the $1.4-million judgment to Lewis. The Mormon Church will not have to pay anything under the judgment, because it settled with Lewis and his attorneys out-of-court before trial for a confidential amount.
Lewis is also seeking “$25-million” in punitive damages against the BSA. The punitive damage phase of trial begins April 20.
The BSA, while expressing its regret that Lewis was molested at all, has stated it will appeal.
Thus, this litigation is far from over. But some of the societal and public policy implications, anomalies, hypocrisies, and threats represented by the Lewis case can and should be considered by citizens and not just courts:
First, Lewis was molested by a predatory homosexual, Timur Dykes. What percentage of the damage to Lewis was found to be caused by Dykes, the homosexual predator, in this trial under standard personal injury law processes and remedies? None.
That is, predatory lawyers, in cases involving harm caused by predatory homosexuals, use present one-size-fits-all personal injury law provisions to sue non-profit organizations like BSA and/or churches --which exist on donations and are trying, and overwhelmingly succeeding in helping boys to become mature, responsible citizens -- and impose on them 100% responsibility for the attacks of predatory homosexuals, and none, not even one percent liability , on the actual homosexual perpetrator.
Consider, too, that BSA is sued for millions of dollars on the basis that great damage is done to boys like Lewis if they are molested by adult homosexuals. I agree that predatory homosexuals inflict great harm on boys. But, I can’t be blind to the fact that the ACLU hypocritically supports and provides legal representation to homosexual organizations like NAMBLA, which takes the position that “Man-Boy Love,” as they call it, is not only harmless, but is actually good for boys, while ACLU simultaneously sues and trashes the BSA for attempting to protect boys from homosexual predators by declining to appoint them as adult troop leaders. And, of course, while ACLU-type liberals cheer on personal injury suits brought against the BSA.
It appears that ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the ACLU and held that the BSA as a private organization has the right to determine whom it will allow to serve as adult troop leaders, that the ACLU has set out revengefully to destroy the BSA by lawsuits and other means, including joining with homosexual activists, and other politically-correct liberals, to demand that governmental units withdraw support from the BSA – which hundreds if not thousands have done across the country.
ACLU’s vicious use of the courts is illuminated by its act, after losing the BSA case in the Supreme Court, to send letters, along with related ultra-liberal organizations, to all or almost all school boards and districts in the country, warning them that if they did not cease to sponsor Boy Scout Troops, ACLU, or related organizations, would sue on grounds including that the BSA discriminates against homosexuals and/or is a “religious” organization because the Boy Scout oath refers to God. ACLU threatened it would seek judge-ordered, taxpayer-paid attorney fees from the schools.
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Such threats of the ACLU are not idle. The ACLU, for example, sued a Washington school district to drive out the Boy Scouts, and sought and received $108,000 in attorney fees. When ACLU sued Chicago schools for sponsoring Boy Scout Troops, the school board settled almost immediately, kicking out the Scouts, and giving the ACLU $90,000 in attorney fees. The ACLU sued the City of San Diego on behalf of homosexuals to kick the Boy Scouts out of Balboa Park, ultimately resulting in a settlement in which San Diego broke the Boy Scouts’ lease at Balboa Park, and handed ACLU “$950,000” in attorney fees. Most Americans are unaware that the ACLU, which postures as a pro bono organization, in fact profits in the millions by taxpayer-paid attorney fees in such cases.
The BSA, in response to ACLU’s threats to schools, sent out letters to school districts thanking them for sponsoring Boy Scout troops, but asking them to cease doing so as BSA did not want school funds to be diverted. Most schools, faced with ACLU’s threats, stopped sponsoring Boy Scout Troops.
The Mormon Church, the largest sponsor of Boy Scout Troops, and The American Legion, believed to be the second largest, and other organizations, have worked to provide new homes for Boy Scout Troops. As the Lewis case evidences, in attempting to do good, they are placed at risk of devastating personal injury lawsuit attacks based on molests by predatory homosexuals -- homosexuals who are in fact primarily responsible for the harm caused to boys.
While many nuanced legal issues will be considered by lawyer-judges on appeal in the Lewis case there are fundamental societal and public policy issues that can and should be considered by the citizenry on a commonsense basis concerning such suits against the BSA, the Mormon Church, or the Catholic Church, all of which are trying to do great good not make great profits:
A key issue is simply: Should general statutory personal injury processes and remedies, such as punitive damages, be used in claims like this, if the purpose of the lawsuits really is to provide effective protections for boys against predatory homosexuals?
Should non-profit organizations, or governmental bodies, attempting to serve and protect children and youth, be liable for “100%” of the harm caused by molests by predatory homosexuals who are in fact the actual perpetrators of the harm but have imposed on them zero percent of the responsibility or liability in judgments, as in the Lewis case?
Great sums of money, $4-million in compensatory and $25-million in punitive damages, have been demanded by Lewis and his lawyers in this case. Although Lewis testified to a troubled life of drug addition and failure, he will now be a millionaire, as will his lawyers.
Notwithstanding the demand for millions, Lewis, his mother, and his lawyers --- as in so many similar lawsuits -- quickly informed the media and public that Lewis’ lawsuit “isn’t about the money,” but, rather, only “to protect the children.” The lawyers representing Lewis, who, if typical contingency fee arrangements apply, will collect 33% to $40% off the top of whatever Lewis gets, before expenses are taken out, are being applauded as knights in shining legal armor just acting to “protect the children.”
Really? I will believe that when Lewis, and his lawyers, having made the point that more effective efforts are needed to “protect the children” from predatory homosexuals, drop Lewis’s claim for $25-million in punitive damages and donate the $1.4-million awarded, plus the money Lewis and lawyers received in the settlement with the Mormon Church, to the BSA and the Mormon Church to fund more effective measures to “protect the children” from predatory homosexuals.
As for the lawyers, if they are “knights,” and not predatory lawyers enriching themselves off of Lewis’ pain and the Boy Scout’s and Mormon Church’s deep pockets, they should prove it by going pro bono. After all, the BSA and the Mormon Church have deep pockets only because millions of Americans have donated funds to help BSA and the Mormon Church do the good they indisputably do for the boys in Boy Scouts.
In short, and in reality: Every dollar that Lewis and Lewis’ lawyers take is a dollar that won’t be available “to protect the children.”
The point is this: If there is a problem in the BSA regarding the homosexual abuse of boys, the problem is predatory homosexuals. As a societal concern, that problem is not solved by lawyers suing the BSA, or the Mormon Church, or the Catholic Church, or other organizations trying to help boys by sponsoring Boy Scout Troops, for millions in compensatory and punitive damages to punish BSA for what are in fact the crimes of predatory homosexuals, thereby draining from BSA funds which could be used by it and supporting non-profits to establish more effective protections against predatory homosexuals.
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Indeed, the Boy Scouts of America is not a threat to the American republic or American boys. Predatory homosexuals, predatory ACLU-type liberals, and predatory lawyers, are.
[Rees Lloyd is a longtime, often-honored, civil rights attorney and veterans activist. The views expressed here are solely his and not intended as those of any person, entity or organization he may otherwise represent.]
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REES LLOYD is a longtime civil rights attorney and veterans activist whose work has been honored by, among others, the California Senate and Assembly, and numerous civil rights, workers rights, and veterans rights organizations. He has testified as a constitutional expert at hearings before the U.S. House and Senate representing The American Legion.
He has been profiled, and his work featured, by such varied print media as the Los Angeles Times and American Legion Magazine, and such broadcast media as ABC's Nightline and 20/20, Fox News In The Morning, and, among others, by Hannity. His writings have appeared in a variety of national, regional, and local newspaper, magazine, and other publications. He is a frequent radio commentator, and a sought after speaker.*
[*For identification only. The views expressed here are solely Rees Lloyd's and not necessarily any person, entity or organization he may otherwise represent. ]
E-Mail: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com
