Judge Refuses To Throw Out Suit Against Scouts

ST. PAUL, (AP) - A Ramsey County judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit over a former scoutmaster's sexual abuse of one of his Boy Scouts.

Judge Elena Ostby on Friday denied requests to dismiss the lawsuit by the Boy Scouts of America, the local Northern Star Council and the church that sponsored the troop.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson filed the lawsuit on behalf of one of the victims of former scoutmaster Peter Stibal II.

Stibal was sentenced in June 2011 to more than 21 years in prison for molesting four scouts in his troop at River Hills United Methodist Church in Burnsville.

The lawsuit contends the national and local scouting organizations had known for decades that pedophiles had infiltrated scouting, and that they should have known the danger Stibal presented.