Two former Boy Scouts who were sexually abused by Robert Charles Philpott, a Scout leader in the 1970’s, filed a sexual abuse lawsuit last week in Multnomah County, Oregon. The men named the Boy Scouts of America and Cascade Pacific Council in Portland as defendants in the lawsuit.
The two men, now in their 50’s, were members of a Boy Scout troop in Milwaukie, Oregon when the alleged abuse occurred in the 1970’s.
Philpott, a Scout leader between at least 1970 and 1972, was able to groom and abuse the boys because of his position as their leader, the lawsuit says. One man accuses Philpott of fondling and attempting to rape him in 1971 when he was 11. The other man claims Philpott touched his genitals during the same time period when he was 11 or 12.
Philpott was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse in Clackamas County in 1996 for abusing a different 14-year-old boy. He was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, followed by 10 years of post-prison supervision, ordered to not be involved with any organization that would put him in contact with children, and other sanctions, court records show.
In spite of the sexual abuse conviction, Philpott’s name doesn’t appear in the publicly available Boy Scouts’ Perversion Files. But just because Philpott’s name doesn’t appear in the Perversion Files (a.k.a. Ineligible Volunteer Files), doesn’t mean that the Boy Scouts do not have a file on him. The files that are publicly available on the LA Times database are those that the Oregon Supreme Court ordered the BSA to make public after our 2010 trial here in Portland. These files only date from 1965 to 1985.
If you or a loved one were sexually abused by Robert Charles Philpott, it is imperative that you call the police. If you would like to speak with a Boy Scout sexual abuse attorney, please feel free to contact me, Gilion Dumas at 503-616-5007 or you may email me at gilion@dumaslawgroup.com