Two More Sex Abuse Cases Filed against Church, Boy Scouts

By Neil Pang
Guam Daily Post
May 19, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/two-more-sex-abuse-cases-filed-against-church-boy-scouts/article_c903c9a8-3c64-11e7-917a-e37d4dc94e37.html


Two more victims, who allege that former Guam priest Louis Brouillard sexually abused them, have filed lawsuits recently in the local court.

Attorney Michael Berman and his two clients, with the initials E.T. and J.S., filed complaints in the Superior Court of Guam earlier this month against the Archdiocese of Agana, Brouillard and the Boy Scouts of America Aloha Council Chamorro District. Both victims are former altar boys and Boy Scouts.

Berman is the latest attorney to join a growing list of attorneys who have filed, collectively, more than 60 sex-abuse cases involving former Guam priests.

The first, a 53-year-old man of Barrigada, E.T., alleged Brouillard sexually molested him between 1977 and 1979 when he was 13 or 14 years old and an altar boy at the San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada.

According to court documents, Brouillard served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Agana and a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts. Brouillard had access to his alleged victims through both church and Boy Scouts functions, the lawsuit alleges.

Documents filed May 3 allege high-ranking officials in both the church and the local chapter of Boy Scouts of America maintained a mutually beneficial relationship that perpetuated the sexual abuse of minors.

"On information and belief, the (Boy Scouts of America) and the Aloha Council were willing to overlook and ignore the sexually predatory conduct of a Catholic priest on Guam as part of a symbiotic relationship between the entities by which the BSA and the Aloha Council gained monetary revenues through the enrollment of young boys, and priests gained access to boys to act out sexually abusive and predatory behaviors," court documents state.

The second case involves a 54-year-old Barrigada man with the initials J.S., who was also allegedly molested between 1977 and 1979, when he was 14 or 15 years old.

The complaint filed by J.S. states Brouillard sexually abused and molested him when he was an altar boy at the Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo.

J.S. was a Boy Scout and was abused during outings with the Boy Scouts when Brouillard participated as a scoutmaster, according to the plaintiff's lawsuit.

Both complaints further allege Brouillard maintained an extensive grooming campaign as a "sexual abuser of minors," which included providing young boys with access to pornographic material, rewarding certain boys with food and "exposing himself."

Both victims are seeking a minimum of $10 million in damages.