Former Michigan Boy Scouts chief charged with abusing boys 20 years in the past

A former Boy Scouts of America scoutmaster was headed from one jail to a different Wednesday after he was charged with sexually assaulting two younger boys over 20 years in the past in a Detroit suburb.

Mark Chapman was paroled Wednesday after serving 9 years in a New York jail for unrelated intercourse crimes and was launched instantly into the custody of Michigan authorities, officers mentioned.

Chapman, 51, was hit with 10 new intercourse prices after he was recognized as an alleged predator by a caller to the Michigan state legal professional normal’s tip line for Boy Scouts intercourse abuse victims, in accordance with the Michigan Attorney General’s workplace.

“Mark Chapman is alleged to have abused children for years,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel mentioned. “He threatened them with violence when they refused to participate or tried to stop him when he was continuing his assaults and he is the source of their pain, their psychological scars and their mental anguish.”

Chapman, who additionally labored as a janitor at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints church in Roseville, Michigan, the place his scout troop generally met, allegedly started abusing one sufferer in 2000 once they had been 13 or 14 years outdated, Nessel mentioned.

The alleged abuse, which continued till the sufferer was 17, occurred on the sufferer’s home, at Chapman’s home and on the church, Nessel mentioned.

The different sufferer was an 11-year-old member of the family and the alleged abuse went on for years “and often revolved around times that were designated as special opportunities for Chapman to spend time with the boy,” Nessel’s workplace mentioned in a press release.

Chapman was transferred into Michigan custody after he was paroled from the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, New York, the place he’d served 9 years for sexually abusing a younger boy, New York State corrections data present.

It’s not identified if Chapman has a lawyer; freelancertamal was unable to seek out one.

“The defendant is a sick, twisted sexual deviant who irreparably injured an innocent young boy by repeatedly sexually abusing him over the course of many years,” then-Ontario County First Assistant District Attorney Brian Dennis mentioned of Chapman in 2013 when he was sentenced to 11 years in jail and 10 years of supervised parole.

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) mentioned in a pair of statements that Chapman was “a registered unit chief in numerous capacities from 1999 to 2007.”

“He was by no means a BSA worker,” one assertion mentioned.

And Chapman was not a part of the group when he was convicted in New York however his identify was added to “to the BSA’s Volunteer Screening Database thus prohibiting any future involvement in the Boy Scouts of America.”

“In connection with the BSA’s bankruptcy, the BSA learned that Mark Douglas Chapman had been registered in Michigan in the early 2000s during which he is alleged to have abused two youth,” the opposite BSA assertion mentioned. “Upon learning of allegations of abuse in Michigan, the BSA reported the new allegations to law enforcement in January 2021.”

Chapman was charged Wednesday by Nessel’s workplace with eight counts of second-degree legal sexual conduct and two counts of first-degree legal sexual conduct.

The BSA settled a lawsuit final 12 months for $850 million in civil court docket with greater than 84,000 victims who mentioned they had been sexually abused whereas scouts. 

It was the biggest settlement of its sort in United States historical past and badly broken the popularity of a 110-year-old group that had been plagued with claims of abuse from volunteers and leaders because the Nineteen Sixties. 

The BSA filed for chapter in 2020 because it confronted mounting authorized prices to defend itself in opposition to claims of sexual abuse in opposition to boys.

Investigators from the Michigan State Police zeroed-in on Chapman, who had been residing in New York since 2007, in June whereas sifting by the 5,000 BSA abuse claims that had been despatched from Michigan.

Chapman is the primary former Boy Scout chief to be charged because of this overview, Nessel mentioned. 

The Michigan State Police have reviewed 550 claims up to now and concluded that not less than 60 of them warrant “further investigation,” Nessel mentioned. 

“It remains imperative that sexual predators be held accountable, and one of my top priorities remains securing justice for survivors of abuse,” Nessel mentioned. “We appreciate our partnership with MSP to reach this point in this important investigation into the Boy Scouts of America. These charges are only the beginning.”