OAK LAWN PATCH
By the time Thomas Hacker re-entered the Chicago-area Boy Scouts as a merit badge counselor, committee chairman and de facto scoutmaster in 1984, he was followed by a trail of sexual assault and battery convictions, as well as accusations of molesting young boys.
“You trust your pastors, priests, Boy Scout leaders, teachers, park district executives, on the assumption that they had the children’s best interests at heart,” Christopher Hurley, the plaintiffs’ Chicago attorney said. “What these institutions have known all along, especially the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts, is that pedophiles use these institutions as a way to get access to children.”