3 plaintiffs in Boy Scout sex abuse case reach settlement

GREAT FALLS — Three of six female plaintiffs who claim they were sexually assaulted by an adult Boy Scout leader nearly 40 years ago have reached a settlement.

Attorney Gilion Dumas, who represents the plaintiffs, said the terms of the settlement, which was reached late Thursday, are confidential.

Dumas says a judge split the case into two trials. No trial date or mediation have been set for the other three plaintiffs.

The Boy Scouts of America could not immediately provide comment late Thursday.

The case was filed in 2011 by six women who were sexually assaulted in the Flathead Valley while participating in a co-ed Boy Scout program in the 1970s. The women claim the Boy Scouts were negligent in their duties to properly select, train and supervise adult scout volunteers.

The women were between the ages of 11 and 14 when they were sexually molested and abused by the late William Leininger Jr., a scout volunteer and leader of the co-ed Explorer Post in Kalispell. The abuse happened while Leininger Jr. was supervising the girls on scout camping trips, during first-aid training as part of the scout program, or on overnight trips Leininger took related to scout activities.

Leininger Jr. was convicted in 1976 of raping six female Explorer Scouts. He died in 2002.

The plaintiffs’ fraud complaint claims the Boy Scouts were operating under the premise their leaders “met proper moral standards” and participants were being placed under proper supervision, Dumas previously told the Daily Inter Lake.

The plaintiffs allege the organization was negligent in following their own policies and procedures and ignored the risk of sexual assault they knew existed.

— Information from the Great Falls Tribune