More than 80 Guam child sexual abuse claims have been filed against the Boy Scouts of America by the Nov. 16 filing deadline in the youth organization's ongoing bankruptcy case, based on information from three Guam law firms representing the survivors.
They are among the estimated 80,000 sexual abuse claimants in the Boy Scouts of America's bankruptcy case in Delaware, said attorney Delia Lujan Wolff.
"My law firm, Lujan & Wolff LLP, is filing claims on behalf of at least 75 survivors of child sexual abuse against the Boy Scouts of America in the bankruptcy case," she said on Monday.
It has been very difficult for many survivors to come forward decades later, she said.
"Yet they did so because they felt compelled to bring these long-held secrets to light, to let people know that these horrific abuses did occur and the institutions that failed to protect them need to do and be better," Wolff said. "No child should ever have to lose his or her innocence, especially in the pursuit of what should be wholesome and worthy goals."
Attorney Michael Berman, of Berman O'Connor & Mann, on Monday said his law firm filed seven claims against the Boy Scouts in its bankruptcy case.
"Many are getting advanced in age and they look forward to a rapid conclusion, if possible," Berman said.
One of the claimants said he was sexually abused when he was about 10 to 12 years old around 1971 to 1973 by his scout master, Louis Brouillard.
At the time, Brouillard was the Boy Scouts chaplain and a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Agana on Guam.
The multiple sexual abuses happened during each scouting activity held at the Lonfit River, according to the claimant, represented by Berman.
"While at the Lonfit River on Boy Scout outings, Brouillard frequently told him that he could trust Brouillard because he was a priest and that he should not be scared, and that he was a father, and that he should listen to father," according to the claim filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Berman said all the seven claimants he represents named Brouillard as the predatory scout master.
Filing deadline
Attorney Anthony Perez on Monday said his law firm also filed a claim against the Boy Scouts of America in its bankruptcy case.
Multiple other Guam child sexual abuse claimants were able to reach confidential settlement agreements with the Boy Scouts, prior to the institution's filing of bankruptcy in February, amid declining membership and a flurry of new abuse lawsuits.
A Delaware bankruptcy judge set a Nov. 16 deadline for claims to be filed against the Boy Scouts in a bankruptcy that could cost the youth organization and its insurers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Wolff said once the deadline to file claims has passed, there should be an understanding of how many total claims there are, how many are against each local council, and how much insurance coverage is implicated.
"All of this information is necessary for any mediation to reach a resolution," she said. "I expect that there will be a mediation by next year for the parties to try to negotiate a settlement that will provide fair compensation for survivors."
Hundreds of other sex abuse cases
Lujan & Wolff also represents most survivors in Guam's nearly 300 clergy sex abuse cases, mostly against the Archdiocese of Agana, which also sought bankruptcy protection to pay off the claims and keep its Catholic parishes, schools and charity missions open.
In those clergy sex abuse lawsuits, more than a hundred named Brouillard as the perpetrator.
Brouillard, in 2016, told Guam media and signed an affidavit admitting to abusing 20 or more boys on the island. In 2018, he died at the age of 97 in his hometown in Minnesota.
Besides Brouillard, others associated with the Boy Scouts of America on Guam that were also named in the Guam child sexual abuse cases included Edward Pereira, a scout master in Mangilao, and Miguel Salas, a scout leader in Sinajana.
Another former scout also named David Joseph Ellington, an assistant scoutmaster in a troop at Naval Station, in his Guam child sexual abuse lawsuit.
Ellington is listed in the Boy Scouts of America's Perversion Files as a sexual abuser on Guam.
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