Man awarded $18.5M from Boy Scouts in sex abuse case

PORTLAND, Ore. — A jury on Friday ordered the Boy Scouts of America to pay $18.5 million to a man sexually abused by a former assistant Scoutmaster in what is believed to be the largest such award against the organization.

Lawyers for Kerry Lewis had asked the jury to award at least $25 million to punish the Boy Scouts for what the jury had already agreed in the first phase of the trial was reckless and outrageous conduct.

They also noted the Boy Scouts had never apologized to Lewis, who said Friday at a news conference that the verdict shows that "big corporations can't be above the law."

Lewis added that an apology "would mean something to me, but I'm not expecting it."

The jury decided on April 13 that the Boy Scouts were negligent for allowing former assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes to associate with Scouts, including Lewis, after Dykes acknowledged to a bishop for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints early in 1983 that he had molested 17 Boy Scouts.

The church was the charter organization for an estimated third to one half of the Boy Scout troops in the nation in the 1980s.

The jury on April 13 found the Boy Scouts of America 60 percent liable, the Cascade Pacific Council 15 percent liable and the LDS Church 25 percent liable.

Since the LDS Church was one of the original defendants in the case, it was required by Oregon law to be listed on the verdict form, church attorney Steve English said after the jury's decision. However, the LDS Church settled out of court a year earlier and will not be a party to any of the jury-determined financial damages, England said.

The jury awarded Lewis $1.4 million in compensatory damages with the April 13 verdict and agreed the Boy Scouts of America were liable for punitive damages to be determined in the second phase of the trial that ended Thursday.

Boy Scouts officials declined to comment on details of the case because other cases are pending, but issued a statement saying it maintains a "rigorous" system to screen Scout leaders.

"The Boy Scouts of America has always stood against child abuse of any kind," it said.