In brief: Boy Scouts must release abuse files
LOS ANGELES – The Boy Scouts of America must release two decades of files detailing sexual abuse allegations after the California Supreme Court refused the organization’s bid to keep the records confidential.
A Santa Barbara County court ruled last year that the files must be turned over to attorneys representing a former Scout who claims a leader molested him in 2007, when he was 13. That leader later was convicted of felony child endangerment.
Last week, the state Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the Boy Scouts to halt the files’ release.
The former Scout’s lawsuit claims the files, which date to 1991 and involve allegations from across the nation, will expose a “culture of hidden sexual abuse” that the Scouts had concealed.
The Boys Scouts of America has denied the allegations and argued that the files should remain confidential to protect the privacy of child victims and of people who were wrongly accused.
It’s not clear how soon the files will become public. The documents are covered by a judge’s protective order and can’t be revealed until they become part of the open court record in the former Scout’s lawsuit.
The Boy Scouts kept internal files on alleged sexual abuse for nearly a century. Through other court cases, the Scouts were forced to reveal files dating from 1960 to 1991.
Woman denies charge in ambush
HENRIETTA, N.Y. – A woman charged in connection with two guns used in a former neighbor’s deadly Christmas Eve ambush of firefighters pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a state charge of filing a falsified business record.
Neither 24-year-old Dawn Nguyen nor her lawyer spoke to reporters after the brief court appearance in Henrietta Town Court. Nguyen is free on the condition she not leave Monroe County except to attend college classes in a neighboring county.
Nguyen, of the Rochester suburb of Greece, N.Y., is accused of lying on a form when she bought guns later used by ex-convict William Spengler Jr. to kill two firefighters and wound three other first responders. Spengler then killed himself.
Nguyen faces the same charge in federal court.
Prosecutors said Nguyen indicated on a form that a 12-gauge shotgun and AR-15 semi-automatic rifle she bought at a Gander Mountain store in Henrietta in 2010 were for her, but they were really for Spengler, an ex-convict who wasn’t allowed to have them. Spengler accompanied Nguyen to the store and picked out the weapons.
Gov. Brown finishes cancer treatment
LOS ANGELES – California Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday that he has concluded radiation treatment for early-stage prostate cancer.
“My health is great,” the 74-year-old Democrat declared in downtown Los Angeles, where he told reporters the treatment was “over, it’s done.”
Brown’s office disclosed last month that he was undergoing radiation treatment for the second-most common cancer to afflict men.