For many, bringing hidden trauma to light is a liberating experience, but for one Mobile County man, the decision after 50 years to finally confront the child sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a Boy Scout leader has only blown up in his face.
The man, who asked not to be identified (and will be referred to as John), is nearly 70 years old now, a former local police officer who later pursued a career in radio as a host on programs serving audiences across the Gulf Coast. He allowed Lagniappe to publish details about his life.
John said he has spent most of his life in or around Mobile, where he married his wife and has raised five children. It has been a lifetime, John explained, where a concoction of ignoring, coping and suppressing the trauma he suffered as an 11-year-old boy has been enough for him to survive the demons and even find success. Until it wasn’t.
When he learned about a $2.46 billion settlement with the Boy Scouts in 2020, resolving more than 80,000 sexual abuse claims, John said he was reluctant and waited until the last week before a deadline to join the litigation.
“I finally said, ‘You know what. Hell, why not?’” John explained. “If I’d known then what I know now, I would’ve never done it. All I’ve done is open up a lot of memories — nightmares — reliving stuff.”
What’s more, an obscure structure in Alabama law could mean he walks away from this experience without seeing a dime.
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Mobile attorney Barry Friedman is representing John in his Chapter 13 filing. He said what should have been a routine process has spiraled into a situation unlike he’s ever encountered in 50 years of practice.
Friedman explained that anywhere else in the country, John’s damages from the Boy Scout lawsuit would be exempt from the bankruptcy process as punitive damages. But not Alabama.
“Alabama is a Bankruptcy Administrator (BA) state, like South Carolina,” Friedman said. “The other 48 states are U.S. Trustee Program states. Because we’re a BA state, we follow Alabama state-law exemptions in bankruptcy. U.S. Trustee states generally follow the federal exemptions.”
Friedman said this structure also leaves Alabamians with a limited homestead exemption and personal property exemptions.
Friedman said he hopes to argue that John’s settlement is protected under the Crime Victims’ Reparations Act, even though he described it as an imperfect fit.
“It doesn’t neatly apply in Alabama, but I’m going to try to use it anyway,” he said, noting it will be up to the judge to decide.
While Friedman said John’s creditors deserve to be made whole, he said federal law generally does not entitle them to these funds. He noted that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) even considers them exempt.
What’s more, he said, creditors may not necessarily want to be repaid at this point.
According to Friedman, there is a high likelihood the companies John owes money to have already written off their losses for tax purposes. If the bankruptcy forces repayment years later, Friedman said it could actually create a headache for the lenders.
“If we pay them through the Chapter 13, they may have to unwind how they treated it for tax purposes and report it as income again,” he said. “In a strange way, receiving the money could even be harmful to the creditor.”
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For John, the financial uncertainty has dragged him back into the psychological wreckage. He said that in the last several months, since learning he could walk away with nothing, he’s had more nightmares and flashbacks.
“There’ve been times I’ve been on my porch with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a 9mm in the other,” he said. “And thankfully, the whiskey has won so far.”
John said he’s trying to fight the feeling of helplessness. He said he understands his legal arguments could be a stretch in Alabama, but he’s hoping his judge can “make a human decision, not a legal one.”
“Fifty years ago, I was physically, sexually, emotionally and mentally robbed. And now, 50-plus years later. I'm getting financially and mentally screwed,” John said. “I need a break like a dead man needs a box.”
