Court: Scouts must prove molesting case

BOISE – Two former Boy Scouts must prove the Grand Teton Council willfully caused their molestation by a camp counselor, the Idaho Supreme Court said in sending the case back to a district court.

In a 15-page ruling issued Friday, the justices refused to dismiss the lawsuit by former Scouts Benjamin and Adam Steed, but said a lower court will need more proof that the council was negligent, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported Saturday.

Benjamin, 22, and Adam, 24, were victims of convicted child molester Brad Stowell during his tenure at Camp Little Lemhi in Swan Valley, Idaho, in 1997. The Steeds sued the Grand Teton Council for negligence in February 2005 and are seeking thousands of dollars in damages and attorney fees.

They claim scouting leaders knew of Stowell’s history of abuse and should never have allowed him to work with vulnerable kids.

Stowell, a 36-year-old who has admitted molesting at least 24 boys since 1988, is in prison serving a 2- to- 14-year sentence for violating probation in April 2005.

He was arrested July 11, 1997, at Camp Little Lemhi after the Steed brothers filed complaints.

In January 2006, 6th District Judge Ronald Bush said both the Boy Scouts of America and the Grand Teton Council could be held liable for Stowell’s actions.

Attorneys for the scouting organizations appealed to the state Supreme Court, arguing in October the case should be dismissed because the Scouts have no direct control over their staffers. The attorneys also argued the Steeds missed a legal deadline for filing their sexual molestation civil suit.

In Friday’s ruling, the high court sent the case back to Bush.

The Steeds need to do more to prove negligence, the justices wrote in rejecting the Scouts argument that the Steeds were not under the “care and custody” of the Grand Teton Council.