A Boy Scout executive took the stand Friday during a Portland civil trial to explain why the organization keeps files -- including "perversion files" -- on volunteers deemed unfit to serve. The thousands of former Scout leaders who've been tracked include not only suspected child molesters, thieves and johns but also gays, atheists and agnostics.



Nate Marshall of the Boy Scouts of America told jurors that the files were meant to help the organization keep undesirables out. He spoke specifically of files kept from 1965 to 1985, but acknowledged that the Scouts continue to gather such information.





Read more

Read

of the trial.

The information, Marshall said, helps maintain the Scouts' positive image and has helped make it "one of the safest organizations a young person can be involved in."

The files offer an exceptionally rare glimpse into the Scouts' inner workings -- showing that the Scouts themselves knew the organization had attracted scores of pedophiles, and providing ammunition to critics who see the Scouts as discriminatory because of their antipathy toward gays and those who don't profess belief in God. Patrick Boyle, an expert and author on Boy Scout abuses, said he knows of only one other time the files have been made public as part of a trial.

Marshall's testimony came as the Boy Scouts of America and Oregon's

defend themselves in

against a $14 million lawsuit by a man who was molested by a Portland Boy Scout volunteer named

in the early 1980s.

The man, now 37, is listed in court documents by the pseudonym Jack Doe. Kelly Clark, one of Doe's attorneys, contends that regardless of whether files were meant to keep out pedophiles, they failed to protect his client. Doe was molested at least six times after Dykes told a local Scout coordinator, Gordon McEwen, that he had molested 17 Scouts, according to Doe's lawsuit. Dykes, now a convicted pedophile, admitted molesting Doe in a videotaped deposition. The Oregonian is not naming Doe because he is a victim of sex abuse.

Marshall told jurors Friday that he is the employee who knows the most about the files. He oversees the files, which are kept in a locked, fire-proof cabinet -- with one set of keys -- at national offices in Irving, Texas. Only he and an assistant handle the files, he said, which date to 1949.

Paul Mones, an attorney for Doe, cited a Boy Scouts document that says the files existed as early as 1919.

Marshall explained that the Boy Scouts of America sorts volunteers deemed unfit into six categories: criminal, financial, leadership, religious, moral and perversion. Those who fall into the first three categories have committed crimes, been involved in inappropriate financial dealings or proved themselves poor leaders by treating children badly.

The "religious" files describe volunteers who are atheists or agnostics, and thus not allowed in the organization. The "moral" category is designated for gays. And the "perversion" category designates volunteers who've committed sexual misconduct, such as molesting children, soliciting prostitutes or possessing child pornography.

From 1965 to 1985, he said, the Boy Scouts created 1,587 confidential files, also known as "ineligible volunteer files." Of those, 1,123 files, or 71 percent, were created on volunteers with perversions. Marshall didn't break down how many of those were considered suspected child molesters.

Doe's attorneys -- who successfully fought to have 1,247 of the files entered into court as part of the lawsuit -- say that 1,000 of them are for suspected pedophiles.

Earlier Friday, jurors watched the videotaped testimony of Gordon McEwen, who in the 1980s was the local Scout coordinator and a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

McEwen said he acted "pretty fast" after Dykes confessed -- Dykes was "disfellowed" from the Mormon church and wasn't allowed to associate with Scouts. Doe's attorneys say Dykes was not kept away from the Boy Scouts but allowed to continue joining them in activities.

The trial, attracting national attention, started this week and is expected to take four weeks. On Monday, Marshall will continue his testimony.