Landmark Abuse Case Filed in Idaho this week
Ron Morgan at press conference July 10, 2007
On July 9th, our legal team was proud to file the first lawsuit under the new state law in Idaho that gives victims of child abuse more time to file civil lawsuits. In March, Governor Butch Otter signed a new state law that gives child victims of abuse more time to file civil lawsuits. Specifically, victims now have five years to take legal action from the time they discover they
were or are injured by crimes they suffered as kids. This is crucial because
most who are abused or molested as youngsters spend decades unaware that
their childhood trauma is causing them current harm (like addictions,
depression, etc.) The measure is believed to cover both sexual and physical
abuse.
In the new case, Ron Morgan and John Doe charge that they were repeatedly sexually abused by Assistant Scoutmaster James Schmidt, who lived and worked in the Boise-Caldwell-Nampa area from the mid-1960s unti1 1983. Schmidt was arrested by Caldwell police in February of
1983 after they interviewed 16 Boy Scouts and their parents about his
crimes. By then, Scout officials had known (through several reports from
several sources) that "for more than four years that Schmidt was a
pedophile," according to the suit.
In 1979 or 1980, when Morgan was a teen, Schmidt repeatedly abused him
in/around Nampa. In 1982, when Doe was nine, Schmidt repeatedly sodomized
and abused him in/around Boise. Schmidt also forced Doe to watch as Schmidt
abused Doe's cousin and made Doe and his cousin do sex acts with each other.
The crimes took place on at BSA functions, on BSA campouts, and at a BSA
building. Schmidt also worked with Scout troops at a Nampa LDS (Mormon)
Stake and a Caldwell Methodist church. Defendants include the Boy Scouts of
America and the Ore-Ida Council of the BSA.
The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Our legal team which includes Washington and Idaho lawyers, Timothy Kosnoff and Michael Pfau of Seattle, Leander James of Couer d'Alene and Andrew Chasan and Tim Walton of Boise brings a poweful combination of skill and experience to these challenging cases. Kosnoff and Pfau have combined to produce $88 million dollars in settlements and verdicts on behalf of victims of sexual abuse by clergy, scoutmasters and other pedophiles, including a $48 million dollar settlement with the Catholic Diocese of Spokane and millions of dollars in cases involving other Catholic dioceses, the Boy Scouts of America, the LDS Church Corporation and other religious and secular institutions shown to have knowingly harbored child molesters and given them access to children.
