Scout official charged in child porn case

Scout official charged in child porn case
He directed a nationwide task force against abuse of youths
By LISA FALKENBERG
Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3108717

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Douglas S. Smith Jr., the former National Head of Programs for the Boy Scouts of America, has been charged with one count of receiving and distributing child pornography.
DALLAS - A Boy Scouts of America official who directed a national task force to protect youths from sexual abuse has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

Douglas S. Smith Jr., 61, a national program director and staff adviser of the Boy Scout's renowned Youth Protection Task Force, was accused of receiving images over the Internet in February of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Federal prosecutors filed the charges March 21.

"We're shocked and dismayed to learn of this," said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts, based in Irving. "Smith was employed by the Boy Scouts for 39 years and we had no indication of prior criminal activity."

Shields said Smith took over the task force a couple of years ago when another employee retired. Smith managed the distribution of literature, videotapes, a Web site and other resources that teach children and adults at schools, churches and Boy Scout troops how to detect and prevent child abuse.

"Our youth protection program is nationally recognized as one of the finest in the nation and has been reviewed by several other organizations as a model," Shields said. He added that Smith's alleged crime "is not the action of the Boy Scouts of America. This is the action of one individual. It certainly doesn't represent our values or mission."

Law enforcement officials indicated the pictures did not show boys who were with the Boy Scouts organization, Shields said.

"This is the first time ever we recall anything like this being charged against a Boy Scouts employee," Shields said. "We're proud of our dedicated and hardworking people but never heard of anything like this."

Smith's job did not involve working directly with children, Shields said. Smith was put on leave immediately after Boy Scouts officials learned of charges, then chose to retire, he said.

Smith, reached Tuesday at his home in Colleyville, near Fort Worth, referred all questions to his attorney, Jack Strickland, who said: "This is a good man, and I would hate to see the entirety of his life and the good things he's done defined by one incident. He is not taking this well."

Smith was expected to appear in federal court in Fort Worth today.

Strickland would not say how his client will plead but stressed that it is only one count. He would not offer any explanation for the charge. When asked whether Smith could have viewed and distributed the pornographic images by mistake, Strickland said it was a possibility.

"There's all kind of junk that's out there on the Internet these days that any of us that use good sense would not open and not even view," Strickland said.

Smith's indictment was the result of an investigation launched last year by Operation Kinderschutz, a joint program begun in 1997 between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the German Bundeskriminalamt that investigates child pornography distributed over the Internet.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for ICE, the investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department, said German authorities share leads with U.S. investigators, who analyze them in the ICE Cyber Crimes Center in Virginia and identify violators.

Boyd declined to talk specifically about Smith's case but said it's the kind that investigators take special care to investigate.

"Whenever we have cases in which allegations of child pornography arise involving individuals who have access to children, it raises serious concern at our agency," Boyd said. "And obviously, we investigate such cases as quickly and as thoroughly as possible."

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