A former Gainesville Scoutmaster is accused of raping a young teenager in 1985, an instance a civil lawsuit filed this week claims was a pattern of abuse by the then scout leader.
Attorneys for the the plaintiff in the suit, Robert William Lawson, III, 45, filed it in the State Court of Fulton County this week.
The lawsuit claims the defendant, R. Fleming Weaver Jr., raped Lawson on a scouting event at Camp Rainey Mountain.
Weaver served as a Scoutmaster from 1969 until 1981 at Troop 26 which is sponsored by First Baptist Church of Gainesville.
While Lawson's suit claims he was abused several times over a weekend at the camp, it also contends others were abused at the scout facility behind the church.
"The Troop 26 Scouting Cabin, located on the property of the FBC (First Baptist Church), was the location where multiple boys were sexually abused by Weaver," the complaint states.
Lawson's suit also names the church, Boy Scouts of America, the Northeast Georgia Council and others as defendants .
"If the men and entities named in this lawsuit had done their legal and moral duty to protect children by reporting Weaver's admitted abuse of at least 5 children, Lawson would not have been raped by Weaver in 1985," the filing stated.
Access WDUN made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Weaver, who remained in leadership at the church until recently.
First Baptist Pastor, Dr. Bill Coates, sent a statement to the congregation this week addressing the matter.
Coates became pastor at the church in 1998, several years after the alleged abuse took place.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution broke the story Friday.
"Because these facts remained unknown to the great majority of the church and the community, the offender continued as a deacon until his official removal from any leadership position within the church when these facts were recently verified," Coates wrote.
Coates' assistant forwarded the statement to AccessWDUN Saturday morning.
The lawsuit acknowledged church and local scout leadership removed Weaver from participating in Troop 26 activities in the early 80's, but claimed he was not publicly implicated or reported to law enforcement.
"FBC allowed Weaver to deceive the congregation, Boy Scouts, and community by honoring Weaver’s contributions in the church bulletin and by falsely claiming that he was leaving his position as Scoutmaster to spend more time with his family," the suit stated.
Lawson's civil suit also claimed Weaver, "continued to volunteer with the Boy Scouts and the NGC by serving with the Order of the Arrow, Scouting’s National Honor Society."
"Apparently, secrecy was the chosen way of handling such matters thirtyfive years ago. Today, this would be handled not only by removing the scout leader and preventing him from ever working again with youth, but also by reporting him to law enforcement," Coates' note stated.
While the 1980's allegations were never taken to law enforcement, authorities did look into it in 1994.
Appointed Hall County District Attorney in late 1993, Lydia Sartain said Hall County Sheriff's Investigator Judy Mecum brought the case to her attention.
"She was investigating Fleming Weaver and there was a report that there may be more recent victims who would fall within the statute of limitations," Sartain said. "There was a great deal of work that went into investigating those allegations."
Sartain said law enforcement was ultimately unable to substantiate the 1994 report.
"There were no charges, no allegations that could be proven that fell within the statute of limitations."
As the alleged victims and others in the community deal with the recent light being shed on the past, Sartain said the community has come a long way in how child abuse victims and their cases are handled.
"These victims now are treated more appropriately. They're treated with more sensitivity. There are a lot of services that are provided."
During Sartain's tenure as DA, the Edmundson-Telford Center for Children was established in Gainesville.
"(It) was a way to better serve victims of child abuse and neglect and to prosecute those cases more efficiently and effectively and to cause less additional trauma to the children," Sartain said.
In his statement to the congregation, Coates said the church is in, "a state of deep regret and sadness."
"Thankfully, youth are more protected today than ever, both by law and by our own policies and guidelines established to prevent abuse Still, everyone loses: a good organization like the Boy Scouts of America; our church which ministers to an entire region; the offender and his innocent family; and by far and most of all, the youth, now adults, who have sought to move on with their lives and must now revisit the pain -- all of us lose some of our much-needed idealism, and so much more. The regret is profound, the sadness overwhelming."
