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Boxes full of "ineligible volunteer" files from the Boy Scouts of America sit next to a large placard with the Boy Scout oath. The files were made public in 2012. The Boy Scouts had a file on Calvin Malone, the plaintiff's attorneys say.

(The Associated Press/)

A Portland man filed a $5.3 million lawsuit Wednesday against the Boy Scouts of America, alleging he had been sexually abused by his Scout leader who had been previously banned from Scouting for giving alcohol to minors.

The lawsuit alleges that despite Calvin Malone's ban, the Boy Scouts of America's national office allowed the Portland branch, the Columbia Pacific Council, to hire Malone in the mid-1970s.

Officials from the national office sent a "personal and confidential'' letter to the head of Portland's Boy Scout office, asking the local office to "alert (them) to be on the lookout for anything that might cause (them) to have concern about (Malone),'' according to the plaintiff's attorneys.

"Unfortunately, there is no indication that the Boy Scouts gave any similar warnings to the parents or boys in the troop that Malone took charge ," said attorney Steve Crew, one of the plaintiff's attorneys.

"Parents enrolled their boys in Scouts because they trusted the program and the adults that worked there. We intend to prove that the Boy Scouts of America betrayed those parents and the children they swore to protect."

Sometime before 1974, documents show the Boy Scouts opened an internal "Confidential File" at their national headquarters, which banned Malone from serving as a leader because he provided alcohol to minors, the plaintiff's attorneys said. The Scouts were also aware that Malone had sexually abused another boy in California, the suit alleges.

Yet Malone was allowed to volunteer in Portland in 1975 and 1976. As a district aide with the Boy Scouts, he took boys on trips to Washington and California in a van called the "Scoutmobile.''

While Scoutmaster of Troop 75 -- the troop that the plaintiff was a member of -- Malone threw parties and continued to provide alcohol to the boys and sexually abused the plaintiff, the suit alleges. Malone encouraged the boys to drink "to the point of gross intoxication'' until many of them passed out, the suit alleges.

Malone is accused of sexually abusing and molesting the plaintiff between 1974 and 1976, the suit alleges. The plaintiff was 11 and 12 years old at the time. The suit identifies him by a pseudonym, "Jim Smith," and indicates he's in his early 50s.

"Malone's charisma as a Scout Leader in Portland was remarkable,'' the plaintiff's attorneys wrote in a summary of the suit.

Malone was fired as a Boy Scout district aide in the spring of 1975 for financial fraud, but was allowed to continue to serve as a Scoutmaster for about six more months, according to the plaintiff's lawyers.

Deron Smith, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, said he could not comment on the pending litigation, but added, "The abuse of a child runs counter to everything for which the Boy Scouts of America stands.'' He said the Boy Scouts of America continues to develop and enhance its efforts to protect youth.

"Today, the BSA seeks to prevent child abuse through a comprehensive program of education on the subject, the chartered organization leader selection process, criminal background and other checks, policies and procedures to serve as barriers to abuse and the prompt mandatory reporting of any allegation or suspicion of abuse,'' Smith said.

Malone is currently in custody in Washington state. In 1993, he was convicted of first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree child molestation in Snohomish County. He's being held in a special detention facility for sex offenders on McNeil Island, an hour outside of Seattle.

He had been scheduled for release in September of 2012, but the Washington State Attorney General's Office invoked a special legal provision to keep Malone civilly committed based on the belief that he is "likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence unless confined to a secure facility."

Malone served as a Boy Scout leader for more than a decade. Besides Oregon, he served in Washington, Montana, California, Alabama, Germany and Switzerland.

Malone had been involved as an adult leader in a Boy Scout troop alongside another alleged pedophile Scoutmaster Steven Terry Hill, according to the plaintiff's lawyers. Hill has been the subject of multiple lawsuits, contending he sexually abused Boy Scouts in the late 1970s, including a $120 million lawsuit by three men heading to trial in Portland in September.

Attorneys Steve Crew and Peter Janci of the Portland law firm O'Donnell Clark & Crew, as well as attorneys Randy Vogt and Barbara Long of the Law Offices of Randall Vogt, filed the lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Oregon law allows victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue up until age 40, or within five years of when they realize the harm the abuse has caused.

The suit says the plaintiff made the realization this year.

This is one of many recent cases involving the Boy Scouts of America's secret files. A 2010 civil case prosecuted by attorneys from O'Donnell Clark & Crew won the first public disclosure of the secret "perversion files" from the years 1965 to 1985.

--Maxine Bernstein