New Sex Abuse Arrest

[5thGenTexan]

Not one from the files, but apparently a brand new case.

 

An assistant scoutmaster on Long Island has been charged with sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy at Boy Scout retreats and meetings over an 11-month period last year.

Jonathan Spohrer, 26, was arrested by Nassau County police at his North Bellmore home on Thursday. He pleaded not guilty on Friday to a charge of second-degree sexual conduct against a child.

Spohrer's lawyer, Joseph Carbone Jr., said his client denies the allegations.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/assistant-scoutmaster-arrested-sexually-abusing-12-year-old-boy?fbclid=IwAR2FOJ5MwxJCsa2_t00_rjA8jZ1g-ibjv0J1HeNrdB5Jmp9aQZmrcRh8Tjs

 

 

[Sentinel947]

I saw this today as well. Brand new case. As the details become public, it will be a shame to see where things went wrong and what signs were ignored. Criminal sexual act- second degree Crime & Punishment in New York : ... A person commits a criminal sexual act in the second degree when the offender is 18 years old or over and engages in oral or anal sexual conduct with another person who is under 15 years old. 

[ham_solo]

You can't help think this could have been avoided if the other adults would have paid attention.  THAT is the real purpose of YPT.

[ParkMan]

While I don't know the details here, my first reaction is that the council needs to shut this unit down.  How was it that there were opportunities at a Scouting event for this leader to have alone time with a youth?  This is exactly what YPT is supposed to prevent.

[5thGenTexan]

I am not sure if people don't pay attention to their YPT training or don't think it applies if another adults is "nice".  Two weeks ago we were at a District level Cub Scout campout.  I was just letting one of my new leaders/parent know I was taking my own son up to the restroom.  He straight up asked if I could take his kid too.

[malraux]

21 minutes ago, 5thGenTexan said:

He straight up asked if I could take his kid too.

That wouldn't violate 1 on 1 and presumably there were 2 registered leaders at the event.

[SteveMM]

12 hours ago, malraux said:

That wouldn't violate 1 on 1 and presumably there were 2 registered leaders at the event.

That's the first thing I thought of.  He's allowed to take JUST his own son, but not JUST the other kid.  If he takes his own son AND the other kid, it's acceptable.

[Jameson76]

Saw this and wonder where the breakdown was.

The troubling detail (and it is only alleged) - 

• The abuse allegedly took place “on multiple occasions”
• at Boy Scout retreats and meetings
• between January 2018 and November 2018

This implies this is not a one incident issue, it happened at meetings (assume that was the weekly Troop meetings), it happened at retreats (assume that is outings), and it took place over a 10 to 11 month period.  Not sure what may be occurring with that troop and how is the 1 on 1 apparent access not being noted. 

Meetings could be the guy gave the kid a ride to or from, which would be a violation, but could be how it happened.  Outings possibly the same. 

Just wow, you certainly want to trust and rely on other leaders; with that being said, it is important to be situationally aware of what is occurring.

 

[Thunderbird]

By "retreats", I assume that this probably refers to campouts.  Campouts usually last at least one night, and there is more time and more opportunities for things to happen.  Whatever went wrong seems to have gone wrong on multiple occasions.  Did they not have 2-deep leadership as required?

[Onslow]

On 11/3/2019 at 1:17 PM, ParkMan said:

While I don't know the details here, my first reaction is that the council needs to shut this unit down

Yep

[yknot]

"Trust but Verify" is a much better policy than "A Scout is Trustworthy" because obviously some are not.

 

[RememberSchiff]

9 hours ago, yknot said:

"Trust but Verify" is a much better policy than "A Scout is Trustworthy" because obviously some are not.

Eternal vigilance is the price we pay to provide youth protection. 

How often do we see adults yacking with their backs turned away from youth they are supervising? Playgrounds, malls. scout activities...

How often do we see a mandatory reporter fined for failing to report?  Should reporter laws be changed from "if knew" to "should have known"?

How often has an "abuse report" resulted in a visit from Council which changed or retrained troop leadership? 

My $0.02,

[TAHAWK]

I note  the assumption of guilt.   Almost everyone in prison is "innocent,"  according to them   Typically the accused is guilty, but not always.  There have been accusations of sexual abuse of children against people who turned out to clearly innocent.  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2925577

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_allegation_of_child_sexual_abuse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial

 

[FireStone]

First, I'm assuming innocence until proven guilty.

That said, I'm struggling with the "at retreats and meetings" part of things. What was happening at meetings that there was ample opportunity for abuse to take place? This implies a massive breakdown in YPT procedures. Obviously we don't know all of the details, but I'm struggling to imagine many situations in which this could go on unnoticed by other adults, and so I'm inclined to agree with @ParkMan that the whole unit should be looked at with great scrutiny, possibly even suspended/shut down.

[Rick_in_CA]

The thing is we really don't know any of the details - we don't know the real circumstances of the events, or even what is being alleged. While it is likely that there were YPT failures, we don't know if there were any. The YPT rules while a significant barrier to abuse, they can't prevent all abuse. The reality is we really have no idea what happened if anything.