Boy Scout Leader Charged With Abuse

A Boy Scout leader in Berkeley, Calif., has been charged on 19 counts of sexual assault after investigators identified four young males who said they had been sexually abused by him, reports The New York Times.

The Scout leader accused of abuse is Eugene A. Evans, who, as a long-time leader of the Berkeley Sea Scouts, sued the city in 1998 for discrimination and for violating the Scouts’ First Amendment rights.

Mr. Evans pressed charges when the city refused to provide free berthing for a Sea Scouts boat due to the Boy Scouts’ ban on gays and atheists. The California Supreme Court ruled that the city had the right to deny free berthing to the Scouts.

Mr. Evans’s lawyer, Philip Schnayerson, said of his client, “There have been no complaints of improper or criminal behavior in any of the communities he has lived in” and assured the public that “hundreds” of former scouts and friends had called to voice support for Mr. Evans.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)