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	Ex-counselor Named in Sandwich Camp Abuse By George Brennan Cape Cod Times April 16, 2011 http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110416/NEWS/104160322/-1/NEWSMAP An alleged victim of abuse at Camp Good News named a former counselor Friday who worked at the camp when U.S. Sen. Scott Brown was a camper. The counselor, who was convicted of sexually molesting a child in Maryland in 1998, fits the profile of the person who Brown said sexually assaulted him in 1969. Ernest "Ernie" Milnes was registered as a Tier III sex offender in Maryland at the time of his death in 2009 after being convicted of second-degree sexual assault, court records show. Milnes, who died at 64, is accused by at least one of the alleged victims at the camp. That man, who the Times is not naming because he is an alleged victim, told his story to the state police and Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who is representing several of the people making accusations of abuse at Camp Good News. In his book, "Against All Odds," Brown alleges a camp employee tried to grab him while he was going to the bathroom when he was 10 years old. "I can remember how he looked, every inch of him: his long sandy, light brown hair; his long, full mustache; the beads he wore; the tie-dyed T-shirts and the cutoff jeans, which gave him the look of a hippie," Brown wrote. Though Brown has never named his assailant, the alleged victim who spoke with the Times said Milnes could be that man. "Ernie Milnes fits the description precisely in temperament, dress and physical description," he said in an email. Gail Gitcho, a spokeswoman for Brown, declined to answer specific questions about Milnes. "Sen. Brown hasn't identified the camp, or his abuser," she wrote in an email. "If by telling his personal story, it helps inspire people to talk about what happened to them, then that's a good thing." The alleged victim, now 48, spent eight years at Camp Good News from 1971-1979 as a camper and then became a camp lifeguard. He often railed against the practice of employees urging young campers to go skinny-dipping, he said. Brown attended the camp from 1968 to 1971. Milnes not only abused him at the camp, the man said, but lived with his family in New York for a brief time when he was 12. Milnes would sneak into his room at night to sexually assault him, he said. "The bastard was in my room all the time until my mother caught him coming out one night," he said. The alleged abuse was never reported to camp officials, but the man and several other campers fought with Milnes, who was a counselor at the time, in what he described as a "mutiny." The fights got to the point where the cabins of several boys, including the alleged victim, were changed by camp directors. One camper involved in the scuffles told Milnes, "Don't sleep in my bed tonight," the man said. This is the first time someone alleging abuse at the camp has spoken out publicly. The man has since stopped talking at the urging of Garabedian and the state police, he said in an email. In a statement released Friday evening, Camp Good News officials confirmed Milnes was a counselor in the early to mid-1970s. "There were never any allegations about him brought to the attention of camp officials," according to the statement. But earlier this year, Camp Good News officials became aware that Milnes was a registered sex-offender. That information was shared with camp officials, according to the statement. An investigation was launched early last week after Garabedian filed a report with Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe's office alleging that a 10-year-old boy was molested repeatedly at Camp Good News in 1985. The report also alleged that the abuser was still employed at the camp. Last Wednesday, Charles "Chuck" Devita, 43, a longtime employee at the camp, committed suicide rather than face allegations he abused the 10-year-old boy that went to Garabedian. Since then, a total of 13 people — 11 men and two women — have come forward to Garabedian to allege they were abused. At least three of them have named Devita as their abuser, Garabedian told the Times on Tuesday, and there are "under five" employees that also have been accused as abusers. The alleged victim remembers Devita as a hard-worker, but with "20/20 hindsight" says there was always something peculiar about him. "That blew me out of the water," he said of Devita's suicide and the allegations against him. Many of the alleged victims told Garabedian they were inspired to come forward by Brown's admission that he had been abused at a Christian camp as a 10-year-old boy. Though Brown never named the camp, Camp Good News directors told the Times in February that the senator attended the camp and apologized for what happened to him. Garabedian did not return calls seeking comment Friday and O'Keefe refused to comment about whether any alleged victims had named Milnes as their abuser. "It's under investigation, that's all I'm going to say." Milnes attended Anderson College, now Anderson University, in Indiana, his family and the alleged victim said in separate interviews. Anderson University is a Christian college, affiliated with the Church of God, in Anderson, Ind. A spokesman for the school declined to say whether Milnes attended the school, citing student privacy, but he did say the school has a history of sending students to work as camp counselors at Camp Good News and other Christian camps across the country. "There are no formal ties between the university and the camp," spokesman Chris Williams said. A Facebook item from January 2010 posted by the university's career development center solicited recruits to work at Camp Good News in Sandwich. The details of Milnes' crimes in Maryland are not part of the court documents available online. But records do show he had been charged initially with attempted rape, a third-degree sexual assault, a fourth-degree sexual assault and sodomy, among other charges. On Feb. 19, 1998, he pleaded guilty to the second-degree sexual assault and child abuse. He was a registered sex offender from 2002-2009, but his name no longer appears on the sex offender registry in that state because of his death, a spokeswoman said. The alleged victim said he stepped forward not for a big payday in civil court but to bring some justice for others. "I'll testify for other kids," he said. "I hope it gets blown sky high." Contact: gbrennan@capecodonline.com
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