45 From Mass. On Boy Scout 'Perversion Files'

The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday released a list of more than 1,200 scout volunteers accused of sexual abuse between 1965 and 1985, including 45 Massachusetts residents.

The Oregon Supreme Court ordered the organization to release the so-called "perversion files" that it had kept secret for years — for the first time giving the public a glimpse of how the Boy Scouts handled allegations of sexual abuse.

Not all of the Massachusetts men listed in the records were charged with a crime, but at least two on the list were later convicted of rape.

According to The Boston Globe, Donn Krugar was convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14 in 1982. WCVB-TV confirms Edward Brown was convicted of rape and abuse of a child in 1984.

Carmen Durso, a Massachusetts attorney who has represented sex abuse clients for 30 years, says many on the list will not face charges, but the Boy Scouts could still be sued.

"Many states have done away with the criminal statute of limitations in regards to childhood sex abuse, but those changes are never retroactive," Durso said.

Wayne Perry, the national president of Boy Scouts for America, issued an apology Thursday but defended the organization's system for tracking complaints.

"Experts have found that the BSA's system of ineligible volunteer files functions well to help protect Scouts by denying entry to potentially dangerous individuals," Perry said in a statement.

Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer who represents victims of sexual abuse, says the Boy Scouts of America have violated the people's trust by not reporting all of the alleged crimes.

"How can you trust an institution that has allowed children to be sexually molested over the course of decades to now police themselves?" Garabedian said. "There has to be an independent agency watching this institution."

The Boy Scouts of America says more than a third of the alleged abuses in the newly released records were not reported to authorities.