Stewart Eisenberg, an attorney with the legal team of Abused in Scouting, speaks at a news conference held to announce that the team has identified more than 300 alleged child sex abusers in the Boy Scouts of America, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, at the National Press Club in Washington.
Patrick Semansky / AP Photo
Patrick Semansky / AP Photo
Stewart Eisenberg, an attorney with the legal team of Abused in Scouting, speaks at a news conference held to announce that the team has identified more than 300 alleged child sex abusers in the Boy Scouts of America, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, at the National Press Club in Washington.
Patrick Semansky / AP Photo
Stewart Eisenberg, an attorney with the legal team of Abused in Scouting, speaks at a news conference held to announce that the team has identified more than 300 alleged child sex abusers in the Boy Scouts of America, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, at the National Press Club in Washington.
A Luzerne County man, identified only as S.D. in a lawsuit, is one of about 800 men to come forward with new sexual abuse allegations against the Boy Scouts of America, Nina Feldman and Nicholas Pugliese report for WHYY. He filed a lawsuit Monday in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas, alleging that an assistant scoutmaster molested him dozens of times in the 1970s over the course of about five years.
“There is a crisis in the Boy Scouts,” said attorney Stewart Eisenberg, according to WHYY. “And there has been for many years, many decades — in fact, since the early 1900s.”
In a statement in response to the lawsuit, the Boy Scouts of America said the organization cares deeply “about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologize[s] to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting,” ABC News reports.
The Boy Scouts of America cases, with allegations of cover-up over decades, echo a grand jury report released last year by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro about six of the state’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses. A state clergy abuse hotline has received more than 1,800 calls in its first year, the Associated Press reports.
Bradley C. Bower / AP
FILE – In a June 7, 2011 file photo, State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, addresses a host of environmental and community groups gathered for a rally in the state capitol against gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation in Harrisburg, Pa. Leach, who was the subject of allegations that he behaved inappropriately toward female employees and campaign aides, announced Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 that he is ending his stalled congressional bid. He said he would instead remain in the state Senate.
State Sen. Daylin Leach already has three challengers for 2020, WITF’s Katie Meyer reports. After being accused of inappropriate conduct with female staffers, Leach lost the support of his own caucus, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, and the Democratic committees in the counties he represents.
Joshua Vaughn of The Appeal looks at the record of Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and writes that Shapiro’s approach “is disappointing the progressives who helped elect him in 2016… .”
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., told Fox News that he won’t support banning military-style rifles, saying that “they’re extremely popular,” aren’t any more powerful than ordinary hunting rifles, and that banning them “would be an infringement on the rights of law-abiding citizens.” During the same interview, Toomey didn’t specifically address a question about limiting large-capacity magazines that can hold scores of bullets. Toomey does support increased background checks.
