L.A. Times reporter Jason Felch on the shocking story of a sexual abuse cover-up in Boy Scouts of America

A shocking report in the L.A. Times reveals that the Boy Scouts of America is accused of covering up hundreds of sexual abuse dating back decades. Jason Felch co-wrote the L.A. Times investigative report after digging through hundreds of documents detailing the allegations. Felch joins Soledad O’Brien on “Starting Point” this morning to discuss the specifics of the investigation and how the documents show a pattern of protecting the accused.

Felch, who looked at 1,600 cases of allegations kept on file by the Scouts between 1970 and 1991, says the Boy Scouts have kept these files confidentially in national headquarters for the last hundred years. Some have started to come out through civil litigation. “So the file that we looked at came out in a 1992 civil case in California, and there are thousands more that have never been released,” Felch says.

Of the 1,600 case the L.A. Times investigated, 500 allegations came from parents of the boys, staff members, or even anonymous tips. “We found that, in 80% of the cases, where they were the first to learn about the abuse, there was no indication in the file that they actually called the police,” Felch says. Furthermore, there were apparent cover-ups in some cases. “In a hundred of those cases, we actually found clear indications that there were efforts to cover up the abuse, keep it from parents, keep it from the public, keep it out of the press.”

Also, instead of informing police of a scout master allegedly molesting one of the boys once he was caught, the Scouts “would ask him to resign, and they would actually help him write a letter to parents explaining his departure in some other way.” “So we saw excuses ranging from chronic brain disease, to duties at a Shakespeare festival, explaining why these alleged molesters were actually leaving the Boy Scouts,” Felch says. “The truth is they were leaving because they had been caught.”

Felch tells the story of one man, Art Humphries, who worked with the Boy Scouts from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. He was accused of sexual assault by a twelve-year-old boy but the Scouts actually kept on staff and later recommended him for another position. “Mr. Humphries continued to work in the Scouts despite their knowledge of his pattern of sexual abuse,” Felch says. He was arrested in 1994. “When he was arrested, he eventually pled guilty to sodomizing 20 boys. What never came to light in the trial was that the Boy Scouts had known,” Felch says. “What the Boy Scout confidential files reveal is that in fact, they’d since 1978 that Mr. Humphries was molesting children.”

The Boy Scouts of America released a statement Sunday explaining that they have implemented policies to protect children. The question is, “Are those policies working?” Felch asks. The Scouts continue to keep confidential records of sexual abuse in the organization in a Perversion File, but these records have never been reviewed by an independent auditor or by the organization itself to see what’s working and what isn’t working, Felch explains.