Nearly several dozen cases from North Texas, including 11 from Fort Worth, are among 5,000 "perversion files" released Thursday by court order from the Boy Scout of America national headquarters in Irving.
The information can be reviewed in an online database compiled by the Los Angeles Times of the files dating from 1947 to 2005. In each of the cases, the accused leaders were dismissed from scouting on suspicion of sexual abuse.
Of North Texas cities in the database, Dallas had the most with 21, followed by the 11 in Fort Worth, according to the data.
Garland, Mesquite and Plano each had five.
Arlington and Irving both had three.
Cleburne, DeSoto, Denison, Duncanville and Farmers Branch had two each.
Cities with just one complaint were Benbrook, Hurst, Granbury, Mansfield, Denton, The Colony, Euless, Pilot Point, Lancaster, Hico, Haltom City, Pottsboro, Sherman, Burleson and Grand Prairie.
Many of the documents included memos from Scout officials, local and national, that contain information about proven child molesters in the ranks of adult leadership. Many other files involve allegations against leaders that were unsubstantiated.
Some of the cases in the Times database include copies of the memos and other documents. In those files, the former leaders’ names are attached.
Of the 11 files from Fort Worth, only two former leaders are named. One man is attached to a case in 1976; the other is detailed in two cases from 1980.
The earliest Fort Worth case is dated 1953 and the latest was in 2004. The decade that had the most in Fort Worth was the 1990s, which had six.
Click here to see the database.
-- Bill Miller
