Former Scouts in Georgia and other states, many of them now middle-age, say the national organization’s refusal to make public the files helped facilitate sexual abuse inflicted by their scoutmasters.

The accusers’ claim of a conspiracy of silence is the crux of a lawsuit filed last week against a former Athens, Ga., scoutmaster who allegedly molested a dozen or more Scouts and other boys in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. It’s the latest in a series of such lawsuits filed against former Georgia scoutmasters. More…

*| Union Leader