The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Convictions, lawsuits over sex abuse linked to Boys & Girls Clubs
Two former coaches, a former counselor and a former director at three separate Boys & Girls Clubs in Connecticut have all been accused in court documents of sexually assaulting minors. Three of the former club leaders have been convicted in criminal court.
These cases are part of a nationwide investigation conducted by Hearst Connecticut Media that found more than 95 criminal and civil cases of sexual abuse allegations at the youth organization.
Connecticut is home to more than 40 of the 4,600plus youth clubs nationwide operating under the Boys & Girls Clubs of America umbrella, a taxexempt organization partially funded by the federal government. The national organization does not keep a public database of offenders.
Three thenGreenwich Boys’ Club employees, including the director, knew multiple children had been sexually abused by a counselor in the 1970s and ’80s and did nothing to stop it, according to a civil lawsuit filed in Stamford Superior Court in March.
The lawsuit alleges Andrew Atkinson molested and raped a dozen boys hundreds of times. He has denied abusing children.
The lawsuit claims thenDirector James Starcher — as well as his son, Jeffrey Starcher — knew about the ongoing abuse and didn’t report it. It also claims a swim coach at the time was aware of the abuse and didn’t report it, but reprimanded Atkinson. The younger Starcher now works for the national organization.
Representatives for Boys & Girls Clubs of America said the organization investigated and found no evidence that Jeffrey Starcher was aware of any abuse. He did not respond to requests seeking comment. James Starcher died in 2004.
A jury trial in the lawsuit against the club is tentatively scheduled for June 2020.
Another former employee of the Greenwich Boys & Girls Club, Andrew Knapp, is serving a sevenyear prison sentence after a 2014 conviction for trying to molest one of his swim students in the showers at the club. The parents of a 10yearold boy contacted Greenwich police in February 2010 after the boy told them Knapp took naked showers with him on three or four occasions and touched him inappropriately, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. After a threeday trial in August 2014, a jury found Knapp guilty of risk of injury to a minor. He was found not guilty of fourthdegree sexual assault and illegal sexual contact with a victim under 13.
The Greenwich Boys & Girls Club did not respond to requests seeking comment.
A former director at the Jerome Orcutt Boys & Girls Club in Bridgeport was given three years of probation and a suspended fiveyear sentence on Sept. 25, 2014, after pleading guilty to risk of injury to a child. Jermaine Laidlaw sent sexually explicit text messages to a 15yearold girl who attended an afterschool program at the club, police said.
The club has since been renamed the Boys Club & Girls Club of Bridgeport, according to the organization’s most recent tax filings. Club officials declined to comment.
A former fencing coach at the Wakeman Boys & Girls Club in Fairfield is serving 10 years of probation after he was convicted of seconddegree sexual assault in December 2013.
John Tejada was charged with sexually assaulting a 17yearold girl at Fairfield Ludlowe High School in February 2012. He was coaching the fencing team comprised of students from both Ludlowe and Fairfield Warde high schools at the time, in addition to working at the Boys & Girls Club from May 2010 to December 2011 and teaching fencing lessons at an academy, according to a police report.
School officials put Tejada on administrative leave in February 2012, and he resigned shortly after, police said. School officials declined to comment further on the case.
David W. Blagys, Wakeman Boys & Girls Club executive director, said the club has “many different layers of safety policies and procedures in place” to ensure the safety of the children.
The Boys & Girls Club organization has its roots in Hartford, where the firstknown Boys Club was founded in 1860. Boys Clubs of America, the overarching organization, was officially founded in 1931 but gained federal recognition in 1956.
In 1990, it changed its name to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and local clubs followed suit, adding “girls” to their names. The national organization is now headquartered in Atlanta.