PORTLAND, Ore. – The Oregon Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to approve the release of 20,000 confidential Boy Scouts of America documents will give the public its deepest look at people flagged by the organization as suspected child molesters and show how Scouts kept them out of leadership.

The ruling also could make it easier for other secret Boy Scout files to be used in pending and future lawsuits from former scouts who claim they were molested by troop leaders.

“All arguments about confidential files and whether they’re required to be produced publicly, all those issues are now off the table,” said Kelly Clark, the Portland attorney involved in the landmark case that led the state Supreme Court to decide that the 20,000 files are public records.

While confidential Boy Scout files have been used in previous lawsuits, the documents ordered released by the Oregon court constitute the largest number of such records that will be exposed to public scrutiny.

Similar Boy Scout files are being sought in at least 40 cases nationwide against the Texas-based organization. But Thursday’s ruling is not binding in other states. State Supreme Court justices said in their decision Thursday that releasing the files sought in other cases may not always be the correct decision.

The Oregon files, gathered from 1965 to 1985, came to light when they were used as evidence in a lawsuit in 2010. A jury awarded a record $18.5 million to a man who was molested by an assistant scoutmaster in the early 1980s, finding that the Scouts failed to protect him.

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The 20,000 pages – representing files on 1,200 people – are part of a larger trove of confidential documents the Boy Scouts began compiling decades ago. In 1935, the New York Times reported the Scouts had 2,910 “cards” on men who were unfit to supervise boys.

Paul Mones, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys in the landmark case, said the Oregon files reveal “poignant and disturbing” details.

“These files were integral to the jury finding that the BSA failed to use its vast knowledge of sexual predators to protect its Scouts,” Mones said. “Though the BSA has improved its youth protection policies in recent years, the tragic legacy of the abuse of untold numbers of boys remains.”

The Oregon Supreme Court ordered the names of alleged victims and people who reported on suspected abusers be redacted before the documents are released, which could take more than a week to accomplish.

 


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