Suit alleges sex abuse by former lawmaker at camp

NEW YORK — A lawyer for former U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman on Sunday denied accusations leveled in a lawsuit that the New York Democrat is a sexual “predator” who violated a teenager at a Boy Scout camp five decades ago.

In a suit filed this month in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Ackerman is accused of abusing a then-17-year-old, identified only as “John Doe,” while Ackerman was a director at the Ten Mile River Camp near Narrowsburg, in upstate New York. Ackerman was 23 years old at the time.

“In over 30 years of public service, there has never been any accusation of this kind or indeed of any wrongdoing in the Congressman’s career,” attorney Oscar Michelen said in an emailed statement.

He added that his client would “vigorously” fight the charges and seek to get the case dismissed.

In late 1966, according to the suit, Ackerman lured the teen into his car so he could drive him to an abandoned road, where he tried to force the teen to perform a sex act.

A local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America is also named as a defendant based on a claim that it failed “to take any steps to keep the dangerous predator away from the young men of the camp.”

In a statement Sunday, the Boy Scouts said a check of a database used to screen volunteers found no record of any allegation against Ackerman.

“Had the national organization been made aware of credible allegations against Mr. Ackerman, we would have acted to remove him from scouting,” it said.