In brief: Scouts to turn over files in sex abuse case
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by the family of a California boy molested by his troop leader in 2007 has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to hand over confidential files detailing allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders around the nation.
The Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge said last month that the Irving, Texas-based organization must turn over the past 20 years worth of records by Friday, with victims’ names removed, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. The files will not be made public.
Known as “ineligible volunteer files,” the documents have been maintained since the 1920s and are intended to keep suspected molesters and others accused of misconduct out of Scouting. Scouts officials have resisted releasing them and won’t discuss their contents, citing the privacy rights of victims and the fact that many files are based on unproven allegations.
The Santa Barbara case is significant because it seeks to unlock files that have never been turned over by the Scouts, including all since 2005. It also alleges wrongdoing that took place relatively recently, even as the Scouts have stepped up protective efforts.
Plane crash in storm kills two, injures four
DENVER – Authorities say two people are dead and four others injured after a private airplane from Texas crashed just short of an airport runway during a heavy snowstorm in Colorado.
The Denver Post reports the crash happened about 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Hayden, about 25 miles west of the ski resort town of Steamboat Springs. Airport officials say the plane was carrying six people.
Officials did not release the victims’ names or say what type of plane was involved.
Dozens killed in Mexico prison riot
MONTERREY, Mexico – An inmate riot that may have been staged to cover a breakout killed 44 prisoners Sunday, and the jail’s director and all guards on duty at the time have been detained, a security official said.
Nuevo Leon state public security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said the riot broke out about 2 a.m. in a high-security section of a state prison in the city of Apodaca outside the northern industrial city of Monterrey.
The fight between two cell blocks, each with about 750 prisoners, may have been staged as a cover for a prison break, he said. Domene said in counting the dead, officials discovered some prisoners missing but didn’t know yet how many.
Forty-four people died before state police regained control about two hours later.
Suicide bomber targets police recruits
BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber detonated his car Sunday as a group of police recruits left their academy in Baghdad, killing 20 in the latest strike on security officials that angry residents blamed on political feuding that is roiling Iraq.
Police said the suicide bomber was waiting on the street outside the fortified academy near the Interior Ministry in an eastern neighborhood in the Iraqi capital. As the crowd of recruits exited the compound’s security barriers around 1 p.m. and walked into the road, police said the bomber drove toward them and blew up his car.
“We heard a big explosion and the windows of the room shattered,” said Haider Mohammed, 44, an employee in the nearby Police Sports Club, about 100 yards from the academy’s gate. He described a horrific scene of burning cars, scattered pieces of burned flesh and wounded people flattened on the ground.
“Everybody here knows the time when the recruits come and go from the academy,” Mohammed said. “This is a breach of security.”
Five policemen were among the dead; the rest were recruits. Another 28 recruits and policemen were wounded.