A pair of six and seven-year-old brothers were sexually abused by a boy scout leader (who also served as an extraordinary minister in the Catholic Church) over a period of several years. Incredibly, the assailant was a social friend of the boys’ parents and was also the boys’ basketball coach in a local park district youth basketball league.

The assailant ultimately received one-hundred years in prison for a total of nine sexual assaults he had committed. In the civil suit filed by the Scanlan Law Group, Edmund Scanlan sued both the Park District as well as the Boy Scouts for negligently allowing the assailant to supervise the two boys. The evidence Scanlan uncovered in the lawsuit revealed that although the assailant had a prior sexual assault conviction in Indiana, and had been discharged by another park district over allegations of sexual assault, the Park District failed to conduct a criminal background check before hiring him. As a result, the Park District and the Boy Scouts settled the case for $600,000.

“I have handled a number of sad cases over the years, but this case was truly tragic,” said Scanlan. “Incredibly, the boys’ parents were socializing with the assailant during the period that he was abusing them, and yet they didn’t have a clue that the abuse was going on. This is, unfortunately, all too common in abuse cases, as children often fail to tell their parents about abuse, and parents fail to read the subtle clues from their children. I cannot stress enough how important it is for parents to be vigilant about all adults they entrust their children with, and to take immediate action once they learn about abuse.”