IDAHO FALLS — A Scout leader now in prison for sexually abusing young boys continued to volunteer for the eastern Idaho Grand Teton Council of the Boy Scouts of America after he was charged and released on $100,000 bond.
Robert "Scott" Price, 43, is the fourth pedophile who worked or volunteered for the current Scout council leadership, according to the Post Register newspaper.
Like other workers or volunteers affiliated with the council who were prosecuted for child molestation, Price's criminal court records were not entered in the state court file archives.
They were released to the newspaper Tuesday after being located by a judge's clerk, who said the documents should have been unsealed and made public three years ago.
Former Camp Little Lemhi counselor Jeff Hardin was convicted in 1991 of molesting a boy he met at the Scout camp. Another instructor from the same camp, Brad Stowell, was arrested in 1997 and subsequently confessed to molesting 24 boys, many of whom he met through Scouting.
Swan Valley Boy Scout camp instructor Dennis Empey was convicted in 1991 in Utah of three felony counts of raping children and sentenced to probation. Two years later, he moved back to eastern Idaho, where he was paid to supply graphic designs for the Grand Teton Council's Web site until recently. A sworn statement filed this month in a lawsuit brought by Scouts against the Grand Teton Council alleges Empey raped a 15-year-old boy in 1983 at an Idaho Scout camp.
Price's connection to the Scouting organization is the latest to emerge.
A former Pocatello police officer and real estate agent, Price served as a Boy Scout leader for a troop sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bannock County as part of the Grand Teton Council in the mid-1990s.
He was arrested, jailed and charged with five felony sex crimes in March 2002 after boys came forward with allegations that Price had molested them during Scouting trips to Challis, Pocatello, Power County, Salmon, Fort Hall, Mount Borah, Bannock County, Montpelier and Soda Springs.
Price was released after making bail, but a Bannock County sheriff's investigation found he had resumed volunteering for Grand Teton Council Scouting programs by May 2002. That month, 6th District Judge N. Randy Smith determined Price had violated terms of his release by spending time alone with children and ordered his arrest.
Price pleaded guilty in June 2002 to three felonies: sexual abuse of a child under 16, lewd conduct with a child under 16 and sexual battery of a child 16 to 17 years old. He is serving a prison term of 15 years to life. "The defendant sexually molested several underage boys (at least eight) since 1987, using alcohol, pornography and rewards (including money) for enticement," Smith wrote on Dec. 23, 2002, after a hearing where he denied a request to reduce Price's sentence.
"You will be held accountable by the master Judge, our King, our Lord and savior for the wrongs . . . and overzealous abusive sentence you gave me and any others," Price wrote to Smith in 2003. "Repent, I will have to forgive you."
Bannock County Prosecutor Mark Hiedeman said Price found most of his victims through the Boy Scouts. LDS Church Stake President William McKee said many of the trips where sexual assaults allegedly occurred were not sponsored by the church or Scouting, but were led by Price on his own.
Before Price's sentencing, Smith received at least 40 letters from people who were critical of Price's conduct and the failure of the sponsoring organizations to better protect children from predators in the Scouting program.