Teen sues Boy Scouts, alleging abuse at Pa. camp

A young man who says he was sexually abused at a Boy Scout camp in the Poconos by a supervisor who later committed suicide as he was about to go on trial filed a lawsuit against the national scouting organization and its local affiliate on Friday.

The plaintiff, now 18, says that he was sexually assaulted by Gregory Ritter, 44, a first-aid supervisor at Camp Trexler, and that the Boy Scouts' negligence allowed it to happen. The abuse took place in the fall of 2008, when the plaintiff was 14, and followed months of "grooming" by Ritter, the lawsuit said.

Ritter was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and other offenses. He killed himself in January 2010 on the day his trial was supposed to start.

The lawsuit, filed in Lehigh County Court, seeks at least $50,000 plus punitive damages from both the Boy Scouts and the local affiliate, the Minsi Trails Council, which runs Camp Trexler. - AP