Summary
FLOODLIT is seeking more information about Ricky Avant.
In 1979 in Norfolk, Virginia, Eric Patrick “Ricky” Avant was a cub scout leader in the Mormon church.
Avant sodomized eight boys.
He had a prior conviction for sodomy in 1979, but the LDS church allegedly never checked him out and never registered him with Boy Scouts of America, which would have run a background check on Avant.
The LDS church settled a civil lawsuit in May 1992 for an undisclosed amount. In that suit, the families of three victims alleged that the church knew of the scout leader’s sexual attraction to young boys. They sued the church for $35 million.
The families who initiated prosecution said they had cooperated with police to compile a list of 41 victims from the Webelos den and church.
Two of four witnesses who testified on Avant’s behalf during his criminal trial were parents of boys he molested but who chose not to prosecute.
One mother said, “I think he should have a chance to make his life right.”
If you knew Avant, please contact us.
Facts
Alleged coverup-
LDS church payment: $2,000,000
- Criminal: Convicted, Prison,
- Civil: Lawsuit v. LDS church, Settlement,
- Church positions: Scout leader,
- Church position during crime: Scout leader,
- Crime: 1970s, 1980s, in Virginia,
- Convicted: 1900 to 1979, 1980s,
- Victims: 10 or more victims, Multiple victims,
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Born: 1959
- AKA Ricky Avant
- Mission: no
- Places: Virginia,
Sources
- PARENTS SUE SCOUTS, CHURCH,
- LDS PAY SETTLEMENT IN SEX-ASSAULT SUIT,
- Eric Patrick Avant - Boy Scout Perversion Files,
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1. PARENTS SUE SCOUTS, CHURCH
The parents of two boys who were sexually molested by a Cub Scout leader sued the Boy Scouts of America and a Virginia Beach church that sponsored the scout troop on Wednesday.
The parents and their sons, listed in the lawsuit only by their initials, asked for $35 million in punitive damages and compensation for the boys’ medical expenses. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court.
The man responsible for molesting the boys, Eric “Ricky” Avant, is serving a 26-year prison sentence for sexually abusing nine boys ranging in age from 9 to 13. The two boys in the lawsuit were 9 and 10 when they were molested.
Avant pleaded guilty in January to 13 counts of molestation from 1985 to 1987. All the boys were members of the scout troop. The lawsuit alleges Avant also abused other children but those actions did not result in criminal charges.
Avant was convicted in 1979 of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, which was reduced from a sodomy charge involving an 11-year-old child, the lawsuit said. Avant received a 12-month jail sentence, suspended on condition he seek psychiatric counseling.
Avant, the lawsuit alleged, was the scoutmaster of a troop sponsored by a Mormon church in Virginia Beach. The lawsuit asserts that the Boy Scouts and the church did not adequately screen Avant, who was hired as scoutmaster in 1982, and ignored reports that boys were being abused by the man.
Both the church and the Boy Scouts heard allegations “that Avant was sexually molesting children and utilizing the scout program” to do so, the lawsuit alleges.
The church is not named in the lawsuit. It lists the corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah and the presiding bishop.
As a result of the molestation, the boys became “sick, sore, lame and disabled; they have suffered great physical pain, severe mental anguish and exteme emotional distress and will so suffer for a long time in the future,” the lawsuit says. The suit asks for $15 million for each son and $5 million for their parents.
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2. LDS PAY SETTLEMENT IN SEX-ASSAULT SUIT
The LDS Church has paid an undisclosed sum to settle a suit filed by the families of three children who were sexually assaulted by a church-sanctioned Cub Scout leader.
The three boys - 9, 10 and 11 when they were sexually assaulted in 1986 - will receive the best-available medical attention and counseling as a result of the settlement, their attorney said of Friday's agreement. Representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said only that settling the suit, which had asked for tens of millions of dollars, "was in the best interest of all parties."
Representatives of the Boy Scouts said they contributed nothing to the settlement because the leader, Eric "Ricky" Avant, was not a registered Scout leader.
The suit said the church knew of the Scout leader's sexual attraction to young boys. The church did not check police records of Avant, who was convicted of sodomizing an 11-year-old in 1979, the suit said.
Avant, 28 when he assaulted the three boys, was arrested Aug. 24, 1987. Parents and police eventually compiled a list of 41 boys he allegedly had molested. But Avant was charged only with molesting eight boys. In 1988, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
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3. Eric Patrick Avant - Boy Scout Perversion Files
Documents
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