Lawsuit alleges sex abuse by Iowa Boy Scout Leader

A lawsuit filed in Scott County District Court accuses the Boy Scouts of America and it’s local council of not doing enough to protect children in it’s organization.

It stems from allegations of sex abuse involving a scout leader and a teenage boy.

The plaintiff is named only in the lawsuit as John Doe. He is now in his 50′s and living out of state, but in 1977, he was a teenage boy scout in Davenport. Documents filed in court say Tim Bawden, John Doe’s scout leader, abused him on at least three occasions.

Bawden died in 1992, a well-respected man in the scouting community. He earned two of the highest honors in scouting.

The lawsuit names the Boy Scouts of America and the Illiowa Council as defendants. It claims that they “knew that Scouting had an institution-wide or systematic child abuse problem, and that thousands of adult volunteers had been excluded from Scouting for molestation and continued to be discovered every year.” It says that despite this knowledge, nothing was done to warn families about the dangers of sexual predators in scouting.

Patrick Hopkins, an attorney based in Des Moines, is representing John Doe. On the phone Wednesday he told News 8 that he expects the fact that Bawden is deceased will complicate the case. He also expects the defendents to challenge the case based on the statute of limitations.

The Boy Scouts of America released this statement.

Abuse is – and has always been – unacceptable, and the Boy Scouts of America extends its sympathies to the victims. Recognizing that youth protection requires sustained vigilance, we continue to evolve our multi-layered youth protection efforts, which include youth protection training and education for everyone in our organization and policies that prevent one-on-one contact between youth and adults. Anyone suspected of abuse is immediately removed from Scouting, reported to law enforcement and Scout executives and added to our Ineligible Volunteer Files. The Ineligible Volunteer Files exist solely to keep out individuals whose actions are inconsistent with the standards of Scouting, and Scouts are safer because of them.”

The lawsuit calls for a jury trial and asks for unspecified damages.