Thousands of newly released Boy Scout files documenting allegations of sexual abuse by volunteers include detailed files on eight scout leaders in Maine who were banned from the organization.
The eight represent a small fraction of the “perversion files” involving scout leaders nationwide.
Those files, dating from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, were made public by an Oregon court Thursday.
They include internal reports of alleged child molestations by more than 1,200 scout leaders and other adult volunteers.
A database compiled by the Los Angeles Times indicates a total of 52 cases in Maine in which allegations landed volunteers in the organization’s confidential files, a system designed to prevent people suspected or convicted of abuse from volunteering for other troops.
That list, compiled by plaintiffs’ attorneys in a lawsuit in California, includes cases through 2004.
It does not include any files opened since 2005, or files that were destroyed by the Boy Scouts, which the group said happened in some cases over the years.
The list also lacks internal documents for the Maine cases except the eight.
The Oregon Supreme Court’s decision Thursday pertained only to evidence in a lawsuit in that state, which included only cases from 1965 to 1985.
The 47 files created since 1985 on former scout leaders in Maine contain no details or names.
They range from a 1986 case in Saco to four in South Portland, in 1992 and 1993. The most recent cases on the list are from 2004, one in Orono and one in Bangor.
The eight men on the list are Hazen James “Jim” Currier, Fred Cram, Gene Graves, William Boyd Brown, Frederick Maitland, David J. Brunette, Alfred J. Conrad and Harold Bailey.
Currier’s registration with a scout troop in Rochester, N.H., was suspended in 1981 after accusations were made by teenage boys at a group home where Currier worked.
One of the boys said he had a sexual relationship with Currier and two others said he made sexual advances toward them, according to a letter from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Welfare to the Boy Scouts.
After receiving notice from the Boy Scouts about his suspension, Currier, who was living in Lebanon, wrote a letter requesting a review. In the letter, he listed his work in the community, including as a church volunteer, a hockey coach and a Marine in Vietnam.
He said that during his seven months of employment at the boys home, Teen Haven, he hugged a boy and got up every night to take two others to the bathroom because they wet the bed.
“These are just two stories of my counseling that could be misconstrued,” he wrote. “But I also made a few enemies, I’m certain.”
Reached by phone at his home in North Berwick on Friday, Currier said he didn’t know about the release of the file of scout volunteers. “This is all news to me,” he said.
Currier said he did face charges because of the boys’ allegations, and was found not guilty. “These kids had something out for me,” he said.
Now 69 and retired, he said “it’s kind of rotten” that the accusations have resurfaced but he gets strength from his family and his faith.
“It’s all behind me, and I don’t feel remorse because I didn’t do anything,” he said.
Another of the men, Fred Cram, was scoutmaster of Troop 108 in Casco. Pine Tree Council Scout Executive Harry Pokorny wrote in a letter to Boy Scouts of America Registration Director Paul Ernst that Cram had “picked up some youngsters to go to camp but ended up in a motel with them.”
Cram was convicted of unlawful sexual contact in Cumberland County Superior Court in December 1983 and sentenced to one year, with all but four months suspended, at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, followed by two years of probation.
Cram was placed in the Boy Scouts file by June 1984. He could not be reached Friday.
Gene Graves was in his 20s and married, had a young son and was working as a store clerk when he served as an adviser to Post 173 in Mars Hill in the early 1960s.
In 1964, he was charged with two counts of indecent liberties for alleged incidents in April and May of that year.
He was found guilty on one count.
The prosecution did not proceed on the other count for lack of evidence, according to documents from Presque Isle District Court.
He also was found guilty of illegal possession of obscene literature and assault and battery.
Reached by phone Friday at a number listed in Rockport, Graves said he did not know about the file or know that documents about his work with the Boy Scouts had been made public.
He declined to comment.
The Maine case files that were released shed some light on the process the organization used to try to keep predators away from scouts.
In only one case does it appear that a scout leader was able to re-register after being kicked out.
William Boyd Brown, a scoutmaster from Westbrook who would now be 69, was dismissed and put on the ineligible volunteer list after he was convicted of unlawful sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in 1977.
According to the file, Brown fought the charge but was convicted by a jury after two hours of deliberation. He served no jail time.
In 1988, Brown asked to register as a Boy Scouts volunteer in Massachusetts.
He noted in his request that he had no criminal activity in the previous 10 years.
The Mohegan Council in Massachusetts allowed him to register on “probation,” then exchanged letters with the Boy Scouts registration service in Texas.
The director recommended that he not be allowed to register. The file does not indicate whether they followed through on the recommendation. Brown could not be located for comment Friday.
Frederick Maitland, now 80, was scoutmaster for Troop 51 in the Greater Lowell Council in Massachusetts when he was arrested on sex charges, which were published in The Sun newspaper on Nov. 3, 1981. He resigned his position with the Boy Scouts less than a week later.
The charges were eventually dismissed, and the Boy Scouts of America decided not to refuse registration to Maitland.
The organization kept his information on file with a note to notify scout executives if he tried to register.
When Maitland tried to register with the Scouts in 1988 while living in Cumberland, his application was flagged with a note to Pine Tree Council Scout Executive Robert Denlinger: “At this time, we do not feel he should be registered with the Boy Scouts of America.”
Maitland, who is still listed as a Cumberland resident, did not return a call Friday seeking comment.
He has no criminal record in Maine.
Harold E. Bailey of Bucksport was 54 when he was convicted in 1978 of unlawful sexual contact and sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced to a year in jail, according to records in the files.
The paper company employee was accused of having sex with several members of his troop in Bucksport.
The Boy Scouts’ registration and subscription service asked Katahdin area Scout Executive Kenneth Liberty to track the case until a conviction was entered.
Bailey was placed in the file banning him from scouts in 1979.
The files note that Bailey never married and was an Air Force veteran. An Internet search suggests he is no longer living.
David J. Brunette, a scout volunteer in Kittery, was banned from the organization in 1983 when he was charged with sexual assault on a 13-year-old Boy Scout and giving the boy alcohol.
The records show multiple criminal charges against him in multiple locations, including at a campsite in New Hampshire.
The shipyard worker and decorated Navy veteran appealed his conviction and prevailed on a technicality. During testimony, the victim’s mother said the boy was her biological son when in fact he was adopted. She later notified authorities.
The judge cited that reason in throwing out the conviction, saying the jury may have been improperly swayed by the perception the victim was her biological child.
Brunette got two six-month sentences for endangering the welfare of a child.
In 1986, he was found guilty of the felony charge of gross sexual misconduct and was given a two-year sentence, with time suspended except for the five months he had already served, according to the State Bureau of Identification.
In 1999, he was convicted of possession of child pornography and sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release.
Searches on Internet databases indicate that Brunette died in 2008.
Brunette appeared at one time on the Maine Sex Offender Registry.
In August 1984, the Pine Tree Council of Boy Scouts of America took action to bar a convicted sex offender, Alfred J. Conrad of Augusta, from ever being involved with the Scouts again.
The reason cited for his ban was “convicted and sentenced to five years on a morals and sodomy charge,” according to the internal documents.
The process took more than 18 months, as revealed in an exchange of letters between a scout executive with the Portland-based Pine Tree Council Inc. and the national registration department in Irving, Texas.
Conrad was registered with Troop 647 of Hallowell from 1977 until he resigned in 1979.
He pleaded guilty to one count each of gross sexual misconduct and unlawful sexual contact on April 28, 1983, and was sentenced to one year in prison, not five, according to court records.
The offenses occurred in May and June 1977 in Manchester, with a 12-year-old victim.
Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a prepared statement Friday: “We applaud these brave men who found the courage to step forward, reveal their abuse and take legal action to help themselves and others. Virtually everything we know about the abuse and the cover-ups in scouting have been because of the victims, not scouting officials.”
Eric Tarbox, scout executive for the Portland-based Pine Tree Council, said he has not been contacted by any parents of scouts since the records were released.
Tarbox said the anticipation of the release has not affected participation in scouting in Maine. Last month, the organization tripled the number of Cub Scouts who enrolled in Greater Portland.
Fundraising popcorn sales are up 20 percent over the three-year average, he said.
Tarbox said troop leaders and volunteers are instructed to report any suspicions of child abuse to police or the state’s Office of Child and Family Services. Prospective scout leaders and volunteers must undergo rigorous criminal background checks and complete youth protection training, he said.
The organization has two age-appropriate training videos that are shown to scouts, with parental permission.
“We encourage parents to go online and watch these,” Tarbox said.
“These help our scouts, and children who aren’t scouts, understand when things are inappropriate and how to resist. They’re encouraged to tell and come forward no matter what they’ve been made to feel.”
Staff Writer Gillian Graham contributed to this report.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
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