"Perversion files" show locals helped cover up

"....police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors...."

Apparently, all cut from the same cloth as Joe Paterno. Their names are not published in this article. Why?

Assign a News-Register reporter the task to find out, why.

Let's say I assigned a reporter to sift through tens of thousands of names looking for locals and came across a Tubby Michaels Jr. Let's say a Yamhill County Scoutmaster got an anonymous note in 1985 that it seemed to him or her like he was a little too friendly with a couple of the kids in his charge. Let's say I looked through local records and found someone of that name living in, say, Grand Ronde. Should I just slap it in the paper and say, "Good to go?"
The problems are these: There are tons of names. They date back decades. In most cases, they are not accompanied by any definitive identifying information, enabling me to distinguish your Joe Smith from my Joe Smith. And the roster mixes the very loosest unverified suspicions with strongly supported and even definitively proven ones.
What's more, people are mobile. So I would probably be a bout as likely to find local matches in records from points afar as from local records. Many who lived here then are long gone, with others moving in from afar to take their places.
As a practical matter, I think this one is a non-starter. Our normal point of identification is when law enforcement brings formal charges, and I think that's a prudent place to draw the line.
Steve Bagwell
Managing Editor

Must have touched a nerve, perhaps there's a Baggywell Steven Jr ..or..Sr, on list?

But I am rather a bit more than curious to know the names of the police chiefs, procecutors and pastors that turned a blind eye to these monsterous acts.

Or...are you not?

Are those same police chiefs, prosecutors and pastors still employed locally..or.. is that too much to enquire of in this day and age?

I looked at the list of files posted Thursday. It's searchable by name, year and location. A couple dozen files from Oregon were on the list, but none from Yamhilll County.

Thank you, Starla. I was concerned that any local police chief, prosecutor or pastor, had for whatever their own reasoning, turned a blind eye to these victims. I'll take your word for it that this had not been so.

Let's hope that's the case. From what I've read, the list is nowhere near complete, either. Nationwide, hundreds of files were destroyed over the years for various reasons.

No nerves struck, Mr. Redwood. Just pointing out it isn't nearly as straightforward as it might seem on the surface. It's a very thick and rough list that is very thin on identification and documentation.
Steve

Mr Bagwell,

The list containing the names of the 'local', .ie, of any police chiefs, prosecutors and/or pastors employed within the confines of Yamhill County could not possibly be so voluminous in size, is that what you are claiming, that it is?

Respectfully,

Michael Tubbs Sr
Grand Ronde, Oregon

Ps..., I'd thought your dancing around the use of my real name to be rather 'juvenile'.

In fact, your action was a clear violation of the News-Register's own 'Terms of Use' policy, was it not?

Not at all, Mike. You use it quite often yourself, as you just did above. I don't reveal names on my own initiative, but when people choose to make them public, as you and I both do, that's another matter entirely.
The points I was trying to make were:
1) There may not be that many names of people who were in Yamhill County at the time, but when you are taking about maybe 30 years ago, that doesn't mean much. Those people might well be long gone. And some people on the list from somewhere else in the country might well live here now. We can't check tens of thousands of names just in case some pastor from Alabama is now pastoring here.
2) A name by itself isn't much to go on, a point I thought might best be illustrated by a takeoff on your own. I thought that might hit home for you. Does Mike Smith or John Jones do anything to identify anyone — or Mike Tubbs, for that matter.
3) The accusations in these files range from the highly substantiated to the wholly unsubstantiated, right down to the level of a suspicion raised in an anonymous note, hence my example. Should we run someone's name without having any idea what basis led it into the files? That would seem the height of irresponsibility to me.
My point is that even if I found, say, a John Collins, Brad Berry or Jack Crabtree in the files, how would I know the reference was to the people of like name living here? And how would I know if there was any real basis for their inclusion in the list?
I'm just saying this list, in and of itself, doesn't advance the ball very far, nor do I see effort on our part being able to rectify that much.
Steve Bagwell, Managing Editor

Thank you.

To begin with, these are referred to as "perversion files" by the press and attornies representing some plaintiffs. They officially are called "exclusion files" that were kept by the Boys Scouts in order to EXCLUDE those people on this list from registering as scout leaders. Based on some of the very vague accusations, its easy to see why the scouts wanted to keep them confidential. How many suits do you think will now be leveled at the Scouts for releasing someone's name who is completely innocent of any wrongdoing. These attornies want to destroy a great organization - plain and simple. This organization teaches moral and ethical values to young scouts and shapes them into productive and responsible citizens. Imagine the outcry and liability that would be taking place if the scouts had NOT made some effort to keep the organization free of these predators? Somehow their actions to protect young men and keep the predators out of the organization has now morphed into something wrong?????????? They took action with law enforcement when there was credible evidence and didn't when there wasn't. Good grief!

"....a great organization."

I agree.

"This organization teaches moral and ethical values to young scouts and shapes them into productive and responsible citizens"

To be sure, that is the ultimate goal of the organization. I don't believe that the organization in of itself should be held financially accountable for the actions (or inactions) of individuals that chose to make dishonorable decisions.

After Mitt Romney is elected president, and has appointed a new attorney general, hopefully, the Department of Justice will then be assigning the task to the FBI, as apparently, Eric Holder has had more important things to do.

Any thoughts, Steve?

i wouldn't hold my breath on mitt romney becoming president this time around...


this is very sad, it sounds like there are potentially many victims and what make me really angry is knowing that people knew about it and did nothing, or worse, did something to try to hide it....how sick.

Actually, the irrelevant Romney comments aside, the NR didn't write this article. It was from the AP.

AP article, dateline Portland. Saw the comment function available, made two comments, and here we are discussing a topic of interest about a nationwide (actually worldwide) organization.

You are correct, the N-R did not write this article, that being said, is, irrelevant.

Not all Newspapers are fortunate to have journalist's in the position to 'break' a story, that being said, doesn't necessarily mean N-R staff isn't capable of doing some of it's own investigative journalism ..or.. does it?

I see nothing irrelevant about hoping for a new attorney general, as I have zero confidence in the one we have now.

A new federal AG can happen regardless of who is elected. We have a new AG in Oregon who can have an impact here in the state. It might be worth contacting her, directly, if you want to see more enforcement.

My point about the AP writing the article is that the NR got dogged for not naming direct, local information. Since they didn't write the article, that would not have happened anyway.

I think the NR does a good job, and I think that many people are just way too nitpicky - comments about how there was an a instead of an e and it should have been a : instead of a ;

What is important is the story, what has happened here is tragic

I, agree.

Redwoods, The N-R staff is definitely capable of investigative journalism, we just don't have the staffing to do much these days. It's an unfortunate and common theme with papers around the country right now.

In this case, there was no local information. If you look through all the files released (http://www.kellyclarkattorney.com/files/) there are none tied to Yamhill County. The LA Times has an expanded investigation with cases up to 2005. The map (http://spreadsheets.latimes.com/boyscouts-cases/) shows two cases related to McMinnville. But I could not find anything related in their document database.

Thank you.