Woman Sues Camp Where Scott Brown Was Allegedly Abused, by Travis Andersen, Boston Globe, August 18, 2011

Woman Sues Camp Where Scott Brown Was Allegedly Abused

By Travis Andersen
Boston Globe
August 18, 2011

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/08/woman-sues-camp-where-scott-brown-says-was-abused/V1nImTyUyY0fgaCPFtoSzM/index.html

The 1974 Camp Good News application of Cheryl Madden with her photo at the time attached.

Cheryl Madden at today’s news conference

A woman who attended the same camp on Cape Cod where US Senator Scott Brown was allegedly sexually abused as a boy is claiming in a lawsuit that she was repeatedly raped by a janitor at the camp, and that camp officials did nothing to protect her.

“Child molestation hell is what they put me through,” said Cheryl A. Madden, 45, of Daytona Beach, Fla. at a news conference today in the Boston office of her attorney, Carmen L. Durso.

Madden is seeking undisclosed financial damages in Barnstable Superior Court against Camp Good News, two of its executives, her alleged abuser, and a counselor whom she said was in the girls’ bathroom during one of the incidents but took no action.

Madden said during the news conference that the janitor abused her repeatedly in a bathroom at the camp beginning in 1973 when she was 7 and continuing over the next two summers. She said she did not remember the janitor’s name or the name of the counselor who ignored the abuse.

She said she told her mother that she could not return for a fourth summer because of the abuse.

“I was sick of being fondled and humiliated by someone at the camp,” Madden said.

The camp denied the allegations in a statement issued late this afternoon.

“We are well aware of the plaintiff’s allegations and believe there is no merit to them. We look forward to challenging the specifics in court,” the camp said.

Madden said memories of the abuse first surfaced in April 2009 when her father, Bob Madden, died of a heart attack and left $111,000 to the camp, she said.

She said she called camp official Hope Brooks shortly after her father’s death to tell her about the gift. When Brooks asked if she had enjoyed her time as a camper, Madden said, she informed her that she had been molested there.

She said she later sent her 15-year-old son to the camp, first in 2009 and again the following summer, because she thought her abuse was an “isolated incident.”

However, Madden said, Brooks called her in February shortly before Brown was about to make his revelation, and told her that the senator would not be naming the camp. She also asked Madden if she planned to go public with her abuse. Madden said she did not plan to do so and that the camp should admit to its mistakes.

“It is interesting to note that she maintained close contact with camp officials for more than 2 decades after her alleged abuse and even sent her own son to the camp as recently as last year. The fact that her late father left a significant amount of money to the Camp, some of which the Camp returned to the plaintiff may also be a factor in her filing suit,” the camp said in its statement.

Brown revealed in February that he had been abused by a male counselor at a Christian camp on the Cape, later identified as Camp Good News.

The camp issued an apology to Brown, but his revelation has prompted more than a dozen former campers to come forward with allegations of abuse at the hands of multiple camp staffers over a number of years.

In April, long-time camp employee Charles “Chuck” Devita committed suicide after allegations surfaced that he had abused campers.

Madden said that Devita’s suicide was one of the factors that prompted her to move forward with the lawsuit.

According to Madden’s civil complaint, the defendants knew or should have known that the janitor was “engaged in illegal and inappropriate sexual conduct with young girls at the camp.” The complaint also alleges that camp officials “fraudulently suppressed, concealed, and intentionally prevented the disclosure of the sexual abuse of children at the camp.”

Durso and Madden both said at today’s news conference that the primary motivation for filing the suit is not money but protecting children against abuse in the future.

The Globe reported in June that those who have come forward are hoping justice will be done.

Travis Andersen can be reached at tandersen@globe.com