Peter Zuckerman

The story that the Boy Scouts of America did not want you to read: How leaders of the Grand Teton Council in eastern Idaho ignored multiple warnings and hired a pedophile to help lead a summer camp.

This six-part series relies on public documents that two of Idaho's most powerful law firms tried to bury -- more than 1,000 pages, including sworn statements that spell out how the molester depended on church, family and Scout connections to get away with abusing at least two dozen boys from Idaho to Alaska.

EXCERPT

His first week of Boy Scout camp, 14-year-old junior counselor Adam Steed marched into the director's office and said: "Brad Stowell is molesting Scouts."

Brad wouldn't do that, said the man behind the desk.

"How can it be right that Brad goes into boys' tents alone, gives them massages and touches them where he shouldn't?" the Pocatello teenager asked.

"We've talked to Brad," Elias Lopez said. "He promised me he doesn't massage below the waist."

Adam asked to go home.

Stay, Lopez said.

Adam asked to call his parents.

Don't tell them about Stowell, Lopez said.

Adam stomped out, frustrated. It wasn't the first time he had complained.

Published in the Idaho Falls Post Register. Read the series