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	Abuse Charges Lead Camp to Close By Shelley Murphy and Sally Jacobs Boston Globe April 9, 2011 http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/04/09/sex_abuse_charges_lead_cape_cod_christian_camp_to_close/ A Cape Cod Christian camp under investigation after accusations of sexual abuse announced last night that it will close this summer and issued an apology to campers who may have been harmed there. “It is clear that we must review every aspect of our operations before reopening,’’ Camp Good News in Sandwich said in a statement. “We take the allegations extremely seriously and want to express deep remorse for anything that may have occurred at the camp which may have hurt anyone.’’ The announcement came the same day that the American Camp Association announced it was stripping Good News of its accreditation pending an investigation into complaints of sexual abuse and a possible violation of laws that mandate reporting such reports to police. Six campers have come forward recently saying they were molested at the camp years ago by at least two different employees, according to their lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian. He said the five men and one woman were inspired by US Senator Scott Brown, who disclosed in his autobiography that he was molested as a boy at a camp, which was later identified as Camp Good News. Three of the former campers, according to Garabedian, say they were molested in the 1980s by Charles “Chuck’’ Devita, 43, a longtime employee of the camp who shot himself to death Wednesday outside the camp after learning prosecutors were investigating him for alleged sexual abuse. Devita’s mother, Sandra Devita, who had not spoken to him in about 20 years, told the Globe earlier this week that she warned the camp’s former director, Faith Willard, when her son was in his early 20s that she feared he may have been molesting children. Devita said Willard insisted nothing was amiss and allowed her son to remain working there. In a statement earlier this week, Willard said she only spoke to Sandra Devita once and “at no time was the issue of abuse raised.’’ After Devita’s suicide, Michael O’Keefe, the Cape and Islands district attorney, said the investigation into the sexual abuse allegations would continue. The camp said in its statement that it is cooperating with O’Keefe’s office and remains “fully committed to offering a positive experience to young people.’’ The statement was issued on behalf of the camp by the firm ML Strategies, a Boston consulting group that handles public relations and crisis communications. The statement said the camp made the decision to close for the summer Thursday night and spent yesterday notifying staff and campers’ families. Camp Good News, which had been accredited since 1959, was notified Thursday that the American Camp Association was stripping it of its accreditation, Peg Smith, the chief executive officer of the association, said yesterday. “Due to multiple allegations, we felt it was imperative to remove accreditation pending the outcome of the investigation,’’ Smith said. “We have done so because the safety of children is paramount.’’ The association is a voluntary organization that sets health and safety standards for camps, and members must meet those guidelines to earn accreditation. Camp Good News is licensed by the town of Sandwich. Smith said there was also possible evidence that the camp violated laws that mandate reporting of alleged abuse. Former Good News counselor Charles Lewis said that in 1997 he told Willard, then camp director, that he had repeatedly found child pornography on Devita’s computer, but that she let him remain on the job. Lewis said that in 2002 he filed a report about the pornography with police, who investigated but were told by Willard that she had thrown away the disc on which the pornography had been stored. In an interview before Devita’s death, Dr. Steve Brooks, the camp’s assistant president, said that he was not involved in the camp’s handling of Lewis’s disclosure and that it was unclear whether he knew the specific nature of the pornography. But Brooks said he thought hard about how to handle the situation when Lewis took the matter to police five years later. “I just had to decide what to do,’’ Brooks said. “If Chuck did what it was said he did, it was wrong. But if someone looks at dirty pictures and then their life has changed, that is a different matter. I believed in forgiveness and that even if someone had done a terrible thing, they could turn their life around. So I decided that I would keep him.’’ Devita worked as a part-time swim instructor at the Sandwich Community School pool beginning in 1997, according to School Superintendent Mary Ellen Johnson. But when former counselor Lewis told another one of the pool’s employees in 2002 that he had found child pornography on Devita’s computer and had reported it to Sandwich police, Devita was told to leave. The pool employee, who asked not to be identified, told the Community School’s director what Lewis had said. When Sandwich police confirmed that they were investigating the matter, the director decided that Devita had to be let go. The employee said there had been no previous problem with Devita. “The feeling was where there is smoke, there is fire,’’ said the employee, who worked with Devita. “When you are working with children, you don’t fool around with this kind of thing, and he was working with children.’’ The employee said that when Devita was told that he was being let go, he did not seem surprised. Devita had already discussed Lewis’s findings with the camp’s former director Willard and Lewis. “He just said, ‘Yes, OK,’ ’’ said the employee. “He did not raise a question or act defiant at all. He just had that tail-between-the legs kind of look.’’ Akilah Johnson and Travis Andersen of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Shelley Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com; Sally Jacobs at jacobs@globe.com
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