Four men are suing the Mormon church and Boy Scouts of America in federal court because they say they were sexually abused while attending scouting functions in Idaho.
Attorneys Gilion Dumas, Andrew Chasan and Timothy Walton filed the lawsuit in Boise's U.S. District Court on Monday on behalf of the four men, who are named only as John Does I (one) through IV (four) in the lawsuit to protect their privacy.
Chasan says what the church and the Boy Scouts did amounted to a cover-up.
“The two organizations knew there was a problem with pedophiles joining the organization and abusing boys for years, but never informed the parents or the scouts,” says the attorney. Chasan says all three of the defendants in the case have been convicted of other sexual crimes. He says one of the alleged abusers, James Schmidt, had been convicted before becoming a scout leader.
Three of the men in the lawsuit say they were in troops sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that they were abused by scout leaders while at scouting functions or on camping trips. The fourth says he was in a troop sponsored by the Elks Club in Lewiston when he was abused.
