Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy amid multiple sexual abuse lawsuits
Future uncertain for BSA and alleged victims; Chris Veilleux, who was allegedly abused by his troop leader, is joined by his lawyer Tim Kosnoff and speaks out.
Gill Gayle of Los Angeles is just one of the thousands of men who have come forward with allegations of abuse at the hands of his scoutmasters during his youth in the Boy Scouts of America.
"I think I was pretty easy prey. My dad was gone, and my mom was struggling to keep us fed," Gayle tells Fox News, recalling when he first joined the local scout troop in Florence, Ala., as a child in the 70s.
Gayle says that the first of the abuses against him occurred back in 1974 when he was only 12 years old during a camping trip that took place just a few weeks after joining the troop. A fellow scout that he was supposed to bunk with in a tent could not make the trip at the last minute. So he had to stay in his scoutmaster’s tent.
"I was the odd man out, " he says. "My biggest fear was that I was in the nerd tent and all the cool kids are with their friends.
"But I wasn't in there for any real time at all before he unzips my sleeping bag and has his hand down my pants fondling me. Then he moved to orally copulate me and taking my hand and putting it on his genitals. I knew what he was doing was wrong, but I was also terrified of the embarrassment of anyone finding out."
Gayle told Fox News he was abused repeatedly by his scoutmaster. He had thought that he escaped the worst when his parents reconciled and they moved back to his father's home in Selma, Ala.
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA FACE THOUSANDS OF CLAIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE AFTER FILING FOR BANKRUPTCY
"By then, I had pretty much been avoiding the whole scout thing and come up with a million excuses. I've started running track and anything to have played baseball, anything to like, suddenly not have time without having to confront it," he recalls. "We moved back to Selma. And my dad's like, 'Oh, I know you're in scouting and there's a troop here.' One of his father's friends from high school was a very active scoutmaster and had been for many, many years.
Gayle reluctantly joined the troop and almost immediately he encountered more abuse, this time at the hands of a new scoutmaster.
"This guy picks me up at our house," he says. "I throw my camping gear in. There were a couple of kids in the car. We get the car and he immediately starts giving me alcohol. Started smoking weed and stuff. I don't know if something went in my drink or not. I've no idea. But I blacked out and I woke up being sexually assaulted by that man in his house. In his bedroom.
"And this was a much more violent sexual assault. "
Gill Gayle says two different scoutmasters repeatedly abused him when he was a young teen in Alabama. (Gill Gayle)
Since the beginning of 2019, thousands of victims like Gayle have been coming forward after silence fueled by years of shame and embarrassment for what they were forced to endure. The tidal wave of allegations reached an apex this past February when the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy. The move was made after past sexual abuse settlements strained the BSA's finances after various states passed laws allowing victims to sue for damages despite the statute of limitations.
"But I wasn't in there for any real-time at all before he unzips my sleeping bag and has his hand down my pants fondling me. "
After their bankruptcy filing, the BSA initially proposed a deadline of 80 days after their first notice of the claims process for victims to apply for compensation, which immediately met opposition from attorneys representing abuse victims. The BSA came back with an October date while the claimant’s attorneys suggested a deadline at year's end. Last week, both sides agreed upon a deadline of Nov. 16.
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However, the injunction does not prevent litigation from going forward against individual alleged abusers. It also does not prevent the filing of complaints against BSA-related parties while the stay is in place. The injunction had been set to expire Monday, but Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein agreed to extend it to June 8, which coincides with a scheduled court hearing.
"Folks that maybe haven't been reached will hear this news and understand that they need to come forward by the date or they'll forever forfeit their rights to hold this organization accountable," Andrew VanArsdale, a California-based attorney who represents numerous accusers, tells Fox News.
VanArsdale is part of a group of attorneys working under Abused in Scouting, an organization spearheaded by a group of attorneys nationwide that aids nearly 4,000 scouting abuse survivors, with more coming forward every day.
During the bankruptcy court hearings, there has been debate about a form that accusers would need to complete in order to file their claims.
The form proposed by the Boy Scouts includes boxes to check for describing the nature and impact of the abuse. It also includes narrative sections asking a claimant, for example, to describe the sexual abuse, and the harm it caused, “in as much detail" as they can recall.
"What you're asking abuse survivors to do is to go back to that time when they're 8, 9, 10, 11 years old and recount, you know, likely the most horrific experience of their entire life. About 30, 40 or 50 years later," VanArsdale says. "And that's hard. So there's been some discussions about how much information is necessary."
The BSA's national chapter is spending $7 million on a notification campaign and is expected to reach over 100 million people. The organization also obtained an injunction halting lawsuits against the organization’s 261 local councils as “related parties.” The local councils, which run day-to-day operations for local troops, are not listed as debtors in the bankruptcy and are considered by the Boy Scouts to be legally separate entities.
VanArsdale says that this is a familiar tactic during bankruptcy proceedings and that the BSA likely made the move to minimize loss of assets.
"I think the national organization, at least, in our opinion, talks out of both sides of their mouth on that issue," he says. "On one side, they say, listen, we're just the national charter. These 461 local councils are separate organizations, separate and apart from us.
"However, the national granted them a charter that says they can draw from the charter at any time. and if they withdraw from the charter, all assets, including any land holdings, revert to the national organization. So, you know, the law follows with an organization has the power to kill to take that of another, then it has control over that entity."
Cub Scouts watching a race during the Second Annual World Championship Pinewood Derby in New York's Times Square in 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
When reached for comment, officials for The Boy Scouts of America maintained that their local councils are legally separate, distinct, and financially independent from the national charter.
"Like other non-profit organizations, local councils must balance their assets with their financial obligations and responsibilities to the communities they serve," reads a statement provided to Fox News by the BSA. "This has come into even greater focus due to the wide-ranging impacts of the global pandemic and social distancing measures. In these unprecedented times, councils may need to take prudent measures to monetize their assets in order to preserve the mission of Scouting."
The BSA statement also notes, “We are aware that there are concerns regarding the movement of assets. We take these seriously and intend to look into them to ensure the actions being taken by all members of the Scouting movement are appropriate."
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For accusers like Gayle, the legal battle in bankruptcy court will not deter him from making sure his voice, along with thousands of other victims, is not left unheard.
"I don't know the inner workings of the BSA, but I do know that the safety of the boys that they actively recruited was certainly not their highest priority," he said. " But, I'm glad that there's an opportunity for thousands of us. To be able to hopefully get some kind of closure and certainly some acknowledgment of it."
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