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20,000 Pages Of Boy Scouts' 'Perversion Files' Ordered Opened In Oregon

By Mark Memmott
Published June 14, 2012 at 10:10 AM MDT

The state of Oregon's Supreme Court ruled today that "20,000 pages of so-called perversion files compiled by the Boy Scouts on suspected child abusers over a period of 20 years" must be opened to the public, The Associated Press reports.

As our colleagues at Oregon Public Broadcasting have reported, the files "contain information about accusations of molestation; actual abuse; the names of victims; and steps the Boy Scouts did and didn't take to prevent abuse. The files were introduced as evidence in a Multnomah County lawsuit, where an Oregon man, Kerry Lewis, was awarded nearly $20 million in damages."

For more background, see this 2010 report from The Oregonian: "Secret Boy Scout files document flawed history of child-protection in Oregon."

According to the AP, when the files are made public there will be redactions to protect the innocent. Several news organizations, including Oregon Public Broadcasting, had petitioned for the files to be made public.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Mark Memmott
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
See stories by Mark Memmott
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