The first reaction to this story from the San Antonio News Express was gratitude that someone who is falsely accused of horrible crimes against children is getting their name cleared. It is about time that this happened and was made public. Just like most of this Bankruptcy proceeding this news was a punch to the gut. Because this article is behind a paywall I am going to cite the entire article below and give my “gut punches” after.
90% of this BSA abuse has been hidden behind paywalls in the written news, barely covered in the FCC controlled Main Stream Media, and pales in comparison to the coverage of the Pharma industry chaos the world is living with. Poison and Perversion are targeting our children and the insurance companies who own these industries are doing every thing in their power to remove themselves as the advisors to this demise. Polices were written by the same companies in suit here, to create the problems we are facing, in Purdue and BSA Bankruptcies, even advising the Trustee herself, and we just “let it happen.” Our society and our moral compass have been molested so many times through out our lives, that we no longer appreciate truth from fiction, entertainment from coercion, education from indoctrination, and poison from food.
Corporate control of the Judiciary, Legislative, and Executive functions of a government with zero accountability nor consequences using your tax dollar to remove their liability in the largest cases in the modern world is a dangerous freedom we allow them to have. Entities that own the banks, policy writers, under writers, and insurers of bonds and act as the weaponized arm of U.S. Treasury by way of writing IRS code, and removing their libel should be enough to end their control on our global economy where We the People do NOT see a direct benefit from their management of funds.
Longtime San Antonio Boy Scouts leader William “Bill” McCalister Jr. remembers the letter he received nearly three years ago informing him that he’d been accused of sexually abusing a Scout and had to stop participating in the organization.
“It was like being kicked in the teeth — it was devastating,” McCalister said about the letter from Michael de los Santos, a local executive for the Boys Scouts of America. “I couldn’t even drive for about 30 minutes because I was so upset. I kept trying to think, what could I have possibly done?”
McCalister, 79, had been a scoutmaster for about 45 years. More than 240 scouts with Troop 285 in North-Central San Antonio achieved the rank of Eagle Scout during his tenure. He spearheaded fundraising for a Scout lodge that now bears his name on the campus of Coker United Methodist Church on the North Side.
He fought the allegation made by an anonymous accuser, who said the abuse occurred in the early 1990s. One day shy of the year anniversary of receiving the letter, McCalister sued the local Scout group — called Boy Scouts of America, Alamo Area Council Inc. — and his accuser, who is only known as John Doe, for defamation.
On Jan. 12, McCalister’s nearly two-year legal battle ended when state District Judge Marisa Flores granted his request for partial summary judgment, declaring in a written order that he is “hereby completely and fully exonerated of any allegations of abuse by John Doe.” She was told the accuser had recanted.
That same day, McCalister received another letter — this one welcoming him back to the Scouts. Boy Scouts of America CEO and President Roger Krone, who leads the National Council based in Irving, told McCalister that he had been in reinstated as a volunteer leader.
“The BSA regrets the anguish you endured from this process and these procedures, which are designed to make the safety of children in our Scouting programs the BSA’s top priority,” Krone said in his letter.
Ted Lee, McCalister’s San Antonio lawyer, said he had been told by a BSA attorney that McCalister is the only Scout leader to have cleared his name of abuse allegations. Joseph Zirkman, a BSA lawyer, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
‘Excellent reputation’
McCalister “enjoyed an excellent reputation” prior to the allegation, his suit said. He served as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, earning numerous commendations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal of Valor with Oak Leaf Cluster.
He’s held various leadership positions at the Coker United Methodist Church and has been active in the Masons. A semiretired commercial insurance agent in the oil and gas industry, McCalister has taken Scouts on many “high adventure treks,” the complaint said.
McCalister was swept up in the wave of bankruptcy claims filed by men who alleged they had been abused by Scout leaders in years past, Lee said.
The crush of lawsuits drove the Boy Scouts of America to seek bankruptcy protection in 2020.
Through the bankruptcy process, a $2.4 billion trust fund was established for abuse survivors. More than 80,000 men filed claims of abuse in the case, including McCalister’s accuser.
The group’s reorganization plan took effect in April and allows the Boy Scouts to keep operating while compensating those who say they were sexually abused as children.
McCalister didn’t name the national Boy Scouts organization in his lawsuit.
Through the bankruptcy court case, Lee sought to obtain the name of McCalister’s accuser.
In October, the bankruptcy judge signed an order granting McCalister approval to learn the identity of John Doe.
A private investigator hired by McCalister then tracked down Doe, who was subpoenaed to testify at a deposition.
At the Nov. 21 deposition, “John Doe repeatedly indicated that Mr. McCalister did not abuse him, sexually or otherwise,” the motion for partial summary judgment stated. The document included an excerpt from the deposition where Lee questioned Doe.
“Q: You have absolutely no question in your mind that Mr. McCalister was not involved in any allegations of abuse, sexual abuse of you?
A: “Yes, sir. That is correct.”
That led Lee to file the motion seeking an order “vindicating and exonerating Mr. McCalister.”
No objection
The Boy Scouts of America, Alamo Area Council, in its response to the motion, said it did not object to such an order. The council, based in San Antonio, administers the Scouting program involving more than 16,000 youngsters and 2,400 adult volunteers in a 13-county area of South Texas.
But it added that while it requested McCalister be reinstated, Boy Scouts of America — the national entity — “solely controls” the process for McCalister’s reinstatement as a volunteer. It added Boy Scouts of America had agreed to reinstate McCalister.
James Montgomery, the council’s lawyer, referred questions to the Boy Scouts of America.
The 2021 letter from the Scout’s Alamo Area Council said McCalister “must refrain from any involvement in Scouting,” but McCalister said Troop 285 leaders let that directive slide because none of them believed the abuse allegation.
The Boy Scouts’ website has listed McCalister as Troop 285’s contact, while the troop’s website includes a short video of a 2023 Alaskan Scouting trip that he took part in. He acknowledged participating in troop meetings and going on camp outs “as long as their were lots of other adults around me.”
‘False’ claims
During the motion for partial summary judgment held Jan. 11 before Judge Flores, Lee estimated that at least half of the more than 80,000 abuse claims submitted in the bankruptcy case are “false.”
“According to all the experts, they say in these type of cases, that you have a large number of fraudulent claims and normally it’s about half of them,” said Lee, who typically handles disputes involving patents, copyrights and trademarks.
The confidential nature of the claims process encouraged fraudulent claims, Lee said.
“You’re getting a lot of innocent people who are being brought in who have done nothing wrong,” the attorney said. Many of them have been “given zero due process and they have no ability to defend themselves whatsoever.”Lee estimated he’s generated about $150,000 in fees working on McCalister’s case, but hasn’t billed him for anything other than about $25,000 in expenses. The two have been friends for about 40 years, having met through the Boy Scouts. Lee is an assistant scoutmaster with Troop 285.
The lawsuit sought damages for the “mental anguish” and “public humiliation” McCalister suffered, as well as punitive damages. But after the Jan. 11 court hearing, Lee said he intends to dismiss the lawsuit now that McCalister has been exonerated.
As for McCalister, he’s just glad the ordeal is behind him.
“It is my calling,” he said. “I believe this is what I’m supposed to do. It’s made a difference in a lot of lives, both boys and men.”
– San Antonio Scout leader Bill McCalister wrongfully accused of sexual abuse gets his day in court, By Patrick Danner, Staff writer for the San Antonio Express News | Jan 24, 2024
What a roller coaster this process has been, very much like this article. As a victim of CSA at the hands of the BSA leadership or lack there of, it has always been a goal to make sure that nothing that is submitted during this Bankruptcy is false information, since it would slow down the process for all of us.
The gut punches of this article are as follows:
- This was the ONLY Scout Leader to try and clear their name out of over 7,000 names on the known Inactive Volunteer lists.
- It is not clear that his name was added to this list given the facts displayed in this news article.
- During his “mandatory” removal from Scouting as per BSA National Headquarters because of the accusations, Bill McCalister continued to participate in Scouting events and was his troops main contact during this investigation. The exact opposite of a sincere effort to comply to National Rules in place to keep children protected. That is not leadership.
- The precedent of this case and it’s basis of a false accusation being the only evidence provided to the BSA in order to issue a notice to not participate shows that the mechanism to protect is in place, yet NOT adhered to by the Leader.
- McCalister is a Free Mason and a Methodist Church member, which is a common nexus for the majority of the abusers reported to date, and yet his fellow troop leaders did not believe the report of abuse so they let him continue to participate in scouts.
What a level of Hubris and disregard for these “rules” that the National Headquarters have in place to protect the youth of this nation. If Congress is watching, they should use this incident as proof that no amount of letters suggesting something take place to prevent issues will keep Leadership from following them without some real world consequences.
When a noncustodial parent does not pay their child support they loose their drivers license, but when a Congressionally Chartered Youth Organization Leader abuses their power and is not only inappropriate but out right deviant with a Scout they just get a letter in the mail and might or might not get put on a list.
Victims are asked to answer far more questions about their background than any abuser was ever asked about before they became a leader. Double Standards in Leadership are what has this country in such a failed state of repair.
We need to redefine the terms and conditions that We the People will tolerate and it starts with redefining the terms in our contracts.
When a corporation has more human rights than a human itself and is defined in law to NOT receive the same punishment of a crime as a real person in equity, then that is a major problem for us humans. Remedy to this is to define a person, individual and a human as something different than the state agency or a corporate entity in order to show harm to the real person in equity versus a fictional character in a book.
