Boy Scout Leader in Mich. Faces Child Porn Charges

(July 22) -- If the office voice mail recording is any indication, damage control was in full swing this week at the Gerber Boy Scout Camp near Muskegon, Mich., where the director is behind bars, charged with possessing and distributing child pornography -- including locker-room videotapes of boys at the YMCA where he worked as a pool safety instructor.

"I'm so very grateful for our great Scout leaders who are stepping up and letting folks know that the Boy Scouts of America is still a great organization doing great things for kids," said the voice mail of Mike Sulgrove, Scout executive for the Gerald R. Ford Council, which oversees the camp, "and not to let the actions of one adult leader ... ruin the great experiences so many of our children are having."

On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Grand Rapids indicted Scott Allan Herrick, 39, of Twin Lakes, Mich., on charges of sexually exploiting children and possessing and distributing child pornography. He was arrested in early July on a federal criminal complaint and jailed pending a court appearance on July 27.

Herrick's arrest sent shock waves through western Michigan. He had been director of the camp for the past seven years.

"It takes my breath away," Rhonda Carson, whose son had once been a Scout and knew Herrick, told the Muskegon Chronicle. "I don't know what to say. I am completely and utterly shocked."

Carson told the paper that her son had worked as a counselor at Camp Gerber and looked up to Herrick.

"We had no negative experience whatsoever; it was all positive," Carson said. "Scott was a wonderful role model. He had good values and a good core to him and worked well with boys. ... We're disappointed. We were pretty close to him."

Authorities have alleged that Herrick on four occasions secretly videotaped boys around 9 years of age as they were dressing at the YMCA locker room. He was also charged with distributing child porn on the Internet. One photo allegedly showed a Boy Scout in uniform with his genitals exposed, court documents stated.

An FBI court affidavit indicated that Herrick came to authorities' attention when an FBI agent in Rochester, N.Y., was working undercover on the computer. The agent contacted a user in a private peer-to-peer network by the name of "Joshiex," which ended up being Herrick. The e-mail associated with the account was gerberscoutcamp@gmail.com, the affidavit said.

The undercover agent browsed a directory of files provided by Joshiex, which ended up being video files of child pornography, the affidavit said.

Boy Scout official Sulgrove did not return a call from AOL News for comment. But he told the Muskegon Chronicle earlier this month that he was outraged.

"If we had known sooner, he would have been gone sooner," Sulgrove said. "No one gives us a handbook that says, 'This is what a pedophile looks like.' "

Herrick's attorney, Cris A. Houghtaling, did not immediately return a call for comment.

A number of allegations of sexual abuse involving Boy Scout leaders have surfaced over the years around the nation.

In April, The New York Times reported that a jury in Portland, Ore., found the Boy Scouts of America liable for $18.5 million in punitive damages in lawsuit in which a man claimed he was sexually abused as a youth by an assistant troop leader in the early 1980s.