An 850 page civil sexual abuse lawsuit detailing allegations concerning 17 former Connecticut Boy Scouts and their scoutmaster Donald Dennis has been filed in Superior Court in Stamford, Connecticut.
Dennis, who died two years ago, is alleged to have sexually abused all 17 of the boys during the years 1963 until 1975. The lawsuit alleges that Dennis molested one of them more than 1,000 times.
The Boy Scout lawsuit is thought to be the largest in Connecticut history in terms of the number of victims. There is another lawsuit currently pending against the BSA in federal court in Idaho that involves 20 victims, but that case involves multiple perpetrators and the abuse took place in several troops.
The Hartford Courtant reports that the boys were members of troops 80, 90 and 172 in Ridgefield. The 17 males and two females are suing the national Boy Scouts of America as well as the Fairfield County chapter and the state chapter, the Connecticut Yankee Council.
This lawsuit follows last year’s $7,000,000 jury award against the Boy Scouts of America in Waterbury, Connecticut. The trial judge tacked on nearly $5 million in punitive damages, rendering a total verdict of $11.8 million against Boy Scouts of America. The compensatory damage amount is the largest known in the history of cases against the Boy Scouts of America.