Ex-Scouts official pleads guilty

Colleyville man led anti-molestation group

10:21 AM MST on Wednesday, March 30, 2005

By MICHAEL GRABELL and TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH – A top Boy Scouts of America official who once led a task force to prevent child molestation pleaded guiltyWednesday to one count of receiving and distributing child pornography.

Douglas Sovereign Smith Jr., 61, the former national director of programs for the Boy Scouts, was accused of trading several computer images of minors engaging in sexual acts and exposing themselves.

When he is sentenced July 12, Mr. Smith faces five to 20 years in prison and may be required to pay a fine of up to $250,000.

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Douglas Smith Jr.

"The potential punishments he faces show that not only do we take the charges seriously, but we're going to take whatever steps we need to root out persons distributing child pornography on the Internet," Richard Roper, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said Tuesday.

Mr. Smith’s attorney, Jack Strickland, told the Associated Press: "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."

The national headquarters in Irving learned of the investigation in late February and allowed authorities to search Mr. Smith's office and computer, said Gregg Shields, Boys Scouts spokesman. Mr. Smith was placed on administrative leave in late February and retired soon after, he said.

"We're just shocked," Mr. Shields said. "He had been with the Boy Scouts for 39 years, and there's no indication of any criminal activity."

"We have no reason to believe that any of these actions took place on Boy Scout premises. That's what we were told by law enforcement," he said.

Mr. Shields also said that to his knowledge none of the photos involved Boy Scouts, and he said Mr. Smith's position did not involve any direct contact with children.

The organization has extensive programs for youth protection, requires training by volunteers and does criminal background checks on employees, Mr. Shields said.

Distinguished service

A memo posted online from Nov. 22, 2002, lists Mr. Smith as chairman of the Youth Protection Task Force for the Boy Scouts.

The task force is responsible for training scout leaders to prevent child molestation and abuse. A Web site on the Youth Protection program includes guidelines, handbooks and training videos for troop leaders.

In the letter to scout executives he says that he is confident the training course will provide "the most wholesome possible environment for young people."

Mr. Smith, who has been program director since 1996, won a Distinguished Service Award for the Boy Scouts in 2004. According to a Web site for the Boy Scouts' National Order of the Arrow Conference, he helped create a trail crew at the scout ranch in Philmont, N.M.

"His visionary support to the National OA Committee has allowed our Order to move to new levels," his nomination reads.

In September 2004, Mr. Smith responded to a letter criticizing the Boy Scouts for being intolerant in the handling of cases involving gay members.

"Some intolerant elements in our society want to force scouting to abandon its values and to become fundamentally different," he replied in a letter to the editor of Corporate Legal Times.

Joint investigation

The charge is the result of a joint investigation between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau and German authorities, known as Operation Kinderschutz – a German word for "child protection."

"The whole point of it is to identify people who distribute and receive child pornography via the Internet," said Tim Counts, an ICE spokesman.

German authorities receive leads from private citizens, he said. The German investigators forward e-mail address and computer identifiers to ICE for further investigation in the United States.

Child pornography has become an increasing problem in the United States, Mr. Counts said.

"It's a significant problem, and the advent of the Internet is making it easier for child pornographers to exchange information and photographs," he said. "The Internet with its borderless and anonymous boundaries – it's created new avenues and new opportunities for predators."

Married with children

A neighbor on Mr. Smith's upper-middle class street in north Colleyville said they were startled when federal agents and a SWAT team descended on his house recently and spent five hours seizing items from his home. It's unclear what was found.

Neighbors said Mr. Smith is married with adult-age children.

"We think we're in a safe neighborhood. We go to church. We keep on top of who our children associate with and tell them not to talk to strangers," neighbor Sandy Jones said.

"But this is on our own street."

Lisa Mills is the mother of a Tiger Cub Scout who lives on the street. She said the case "does cause you to think twice about who your children are associating with. You would ... hope you could trust a Boy Scouts official."

Area troop leaders said that they were saddened by the accusation and that it shouldn't reflect poorly on the scouts as a whole.

"It saddens me because every leader that I know takes seriously youth protection," said Joe Alexander, a DeSoto troop leader. "We absolutely believe in the policy because it never allows us to be in a room with a youth by ourselves at any time."

Mr. Shields, the Boy Scouts spokesman, said the organization has extensive programs for youth protection, requires training by volunteers and does criminal background checks on employees.

Staff writer Gretel C. Kovach contributed to this report.

E-mail mgrabell@dallasnews.com and teiserer@dallasnews.com