Lawsuit Claims Boy Scouts Failed To Stop Pedophile

Suit claims Chicago-area officials failed to protect children from a convicted pedophile

A new lawsuit accuses the Boy Scouts of America and Chicago-area scouting officials of failing to protect children from a convicted pedophile.

The suit was filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of an anonymous former scout who said he was molested by Thomas Hacker in 1985.

It claims the Boy Scouts knew in 1970 that Hacker had been arrested in Indiana for sexually assaulting boys. But he became an Illinois scoutmaster in 1971 and by the end of that year had been arrested again.

In the early 1980s, Hacker became a committee chairman and scoutmaster in the Chicago Area Council.

The 75-year-old Hacker was convicted in 1989 and is serving concurrent 50-year prison terms.

A message left with the Boy Scouts in Chicago was not immediately returned.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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