The accused pedophile scoutmaster of Manhattan’s Troop 666 was attacking boys more than 20 years ago – and the Boy Scouts did nothing to stop him, an adult ex-Scout charged yesterday.
“The Boy Scouts let him get away with it,” the ex-Scout said of his former Upper East Side scoutmaster, Jerrold Schwartz, who he claims fondled him in a tent when he was 8.
Schwartz was indicted last week for allegedly repeatedly having sex with an adolescent Scout under his charge in 1996 and 1997.
The district attorney and police are investigating abuse complaints by at least a half dozen other people, including the fondling victim, according to law-enforcement sources.
But most of those allegations concern abuses that happened more than five years ago – too long ago to be prosecuted by law, said Michael Dowd, lawyer for two of the alleged victims.
The now 31-year-old Queens man who claims Schwartz fondled him agreed to tell his story to The Post on condition of anonymity. He said that as an adult, he has repeatedly confronted the Scouts on Schwartz, but to no avail.
“Jerry Schwartz is a monster, but the Boy Scouts should accept its responsibility to protect these kids,” said the married father of a year-old son.
Schwartz’s defense lawyer, Charles Stillman, said his client denies all the sex-abuse claims.
The former Scout alleges he was pounced on at age 8 by a then 20-year-old Schwartz during a Scout camping trip in New Jersey in 1979, too long ago for any recourse in civil or criminal courts. He is cooperating with prosecutors and civil lawyers who are investigating the former scoutmaster, sources confirmed.
“In the middle of the night, he rolled over and he started fondling me,” as the two shared a tent with three other young boys, he said of his alleged encounter with Schwartz.
“I woke up. I got startled. I like sat up – and then he got startled and he rolled back around and pretended like he was sleeping.”
The next day, he tearfully told his mother, who complained to Schwartz’s superiors in the troop and the Greater New York Council of Boy Scouts.
“It was taken seriously at the time,” said council spokesman Don York, but he said the complaint was never passed above the troop level.
The troop determined the 8-year-old’s allegation “was insufficient for more than a reprimand” against Schwartz and it went no further.
Schwartz remained at Troop 666 until May, when the Scouts learned of the DA’s investigation, York said.
“I guess reprimand was not a correct word,” York added. “He was certainly confronted – that’s a better word.”
But according to the mother, the Scouts’ brass was only interested in downplaying the accusations.
“They told me that my son must have imagined this – that he was probably making things up,” she said, requesting her name also be kept anonymous to protect her son’s privacy.