Boy Scouts deny allegations in LMPD sex abuse suit
The Boy Scouts of America deny concealing the alleged sexual abuse of an Explorer Scout by Louisville Metro Police Officers Kenneth Betts and Brandon Wood, or that the organization failed to properly screen them as advisers in the program.
Responding to a lawsuit by a former Scout identified only as N.C., the Boy Scouts and the organization's regional chapter, the Lincoln Heritage Council, said in court papers filed Tuesday that his injuries may have been caused by other individuals or entities over which the organization has no control. The pleading doesn’t say if those parties were Betts, Wood or the police department, or all three.
The Boy Scouts' answer also argues the suit is barred by the statute of limitations. And it says that N.C. had a duty to “mitigate his damages and to the extent that he has failed to do so, he may not recover such damages which may have been avoided or otherwise lessened.”
Related
Betts asks for dismissal of LMPD sex-abuse suit
Councilwoman calls for police chief's resignation
Leader of police's Explorer program asks out of sex-abuse suit
Betts fired from suburban city patrol job in Rolling Hills
The attorneys for the Boy Scouts and Lincoln Heritage Council — Robert Connolly, Marc Murphy and J. Brittany Cross Carlson — did not immediately respond to questions about how N.C. could have mitigated his damages.
In his suit filed March 8 in Jefferson Circuit Court, N.C. alleges he was sexually abused by Betts and Wood in police cruisers and at their residences and that the police and Boy Scouts concealed the allegations.
The suit also alleges the Boy Scouts knew or should have known of the officers’ “sexual predator propensities.”
The Lincoln Heritage Council has said Betts and Wood were both suspended as Explorer advisers as soon as it became aware of the allegations against them.
Betts resigned from the police department in 2014 after he was accused of improper contact with a girl in the program, while Wood was fired this month after he and Betts were indicted on criminal charges — Wood for alleged sexual abuse of N.C. and Betts for alleged sexual assaults on two others.
They have pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers have asked that the suit be dismissed on various grounds, including that it was filed too late.
The suit was filed under seal, but the Courier-Journal and other parties persuaded Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman to unseal it. She will hear arguments May 3 on a motion by N.C.’s attorneys to require that he continue to be identified only by his initials and that other witnesses be allowed to be identified that way if they so request. The Courier-Journal is opposing the motion, saying it violates the First Amendment.
Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at 502-582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com
Read more
Few council members join call for Conrad's resignation
United Airlines passenger was 'abusive,' aviation officer claims
Suit: JCPS worker molested special-needs student
Colombian natural disaster sparks rescue mission by Louisville group