Boy Scouts Of America Reaches Historic Settlement With Sexual Abuse Survivors : NPR

The Boy Scouts of America reached an agreement with dozens of men who claim they were molested while scouting. The deal was brought to a federal court dealing with the Boy Scouts bankruptcy case. Tony Gutierrez / AP Hide caption

Toggle caption

Tony Gutierrez / AP

The Boy Scouts of America reached an agreement with dozens of men who claim they were molested while scouting. The deal was brought to a federal court dealing with the Boy Scouts bankruptcy case.

Tony Gutierrez / AP

The Boy Scouts of America reached a $ 850 million settlement with more than 60,000 men who have sued the iconic institution for decades of alleged adult sexual abuse in scouting.

The deal, announced on Thursday, is the first court settlement in a long list of lawsuits against the Boy Scouts, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2020.

Ken Rothweiler, one of three negotiators on behalf of the men who say they were raped, molested, or sexually molested as children, called it historical.

In an email statement, he described the deal as “the largest sexual abuse settlement in United States history.”

It is more than double the group’s initial proposal to the victims.

Under the terms of the agreement, the local councils are expected to contribute to the settlement fund. Court documents say they will have to pay at least $ 300 million.

Another aspect of the agreement requires non-monetary obligations to victims of abuse, including youth protection measures, a reporting system, the formation of a child protection committee and the exchange of information in connection with abuse claims.

Rothweiler and his law firm represent more than 16,000 alleged victims of the abuse – the majority of whom have been recorded on an internal list of leaders who hunt boys referred to as “acts of perversion” from the 1940s.

“I am pleased that both the BSA and its local councils were the first to compensate the survivors,” said Rothweiler.

But another lawyer called it a “lazy, stupid deal”.

Tim Kosnoff, who actually worked with Rothwieler and his law firm as well as AVA Law to start Abused in Scouting, is furious about the announced deal, which he believes will not be final until a judge signs it.

“I don’t know how to call this anything but a failure,” Kosnoff told NPR, adding that he only found out about the deal after it hit the news.

“I would say it’s a non-starter and if my clients asked me if I think it’s a good deal for them I would say no,” he said.

“You’re talking about clients who, in some cases, have been anally raped for years and who are now expected to receive payouts of $ 3,500 … maybe $ 5,000,” Kosnoff said. “This is an insult to all men who have found the courage to file claims and have participated in this process.”

It is unclear how Kosnoff came up with the sum of $ 3,500 to $ 5,000. However, if the settlement were split evenly among plaintiffs, they would each receive more than $ 10,000.

In a statement, BSA called the agreement “part of our ongoing efforts to achieve a global solution that fairly compensates survivors and secures the future of Scouting by solving past abuse cases for both the national organization and local councils”.

It says:

“This agreement ensures that we have the overwhelming support of the survivors for the proposed reorganization plan of the BSA, which is an important step in the BSA’s path to overcome bankruptcy. Bringing these groups together is a major milestone and the biggest step forward so far. “As the BSA works toward our twofold imperatives to fairly compensate abuse survivors and uphold the mission of Scouting.”

The group’s total net worth exceeds $ 1 billion and includes vast swaths of land across the country, extensive inventory and financial investments, and $ 59 million worth of art, according to court documents.