Former Boy Scouts leader found fit to stand trial in sexual-abuse case
A judge has determined a former Boy Scouts leader from Roseville is mentally fit to stand trial on allegations he molested two boys in the early 2000s.
Mark D. Chapman, 52, was found competent to understand the charges against him and can assist in his defense Wednesday by Judge Alyia Hakim of 39th District Court in Roseville, following an evaluation by the state Center for Forensic Psychiatry, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Chapman is the first person to be charged as a result of the ongoing investigation of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America.
He is charged two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and eight counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for alleged acts against two boys in Roseville. He faces a mandatory penalty of 25 years in prison if convicted of one of the first-degree cases because the alleged victim was under age 13. The second-degree offenses are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Before he was charged here in March, Chapman was serving in a state prison in New York for nine years for a sexual assault conviction against one of the same alleged victims in the Michigan case and was scheduled to be released soon.
That accuser, who was allegedly a victim of the two first-degree charges and two of the seconddegree charges, alleges the acts occurred between 2005 and 2007 starting when he was 11.
In the second case, the accuser contacted a tip line for victims of Boy Scouts of America abuse and alleges Chapman abused him from 2000 to 2005 when he was 13 to 17 years old.
At the time of the alleged incidents, Chapman was a scoutmaster in BSA and involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints located on 12 Mile Road in Roseville. He was affiliated with the BSA from the late 1990s to 2013, officials said.
Chapman remains held in the Macomb County Jail in lieu of a $300,000 bond. He faces a June 29 probable-cause conference in front of Hakim.