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"Normally, we do not suggest that any legal action be instituted by parents," Ernst wrote. "If they desire to do this on their own they certainly should bring about any action they feel necessary. Certainly in this case, there is every indication that legal action is justified." A woman who answered the phone at a listing for Ernst, who now lives in Texas, directed questions to BSA and hung up. There's no statute of limitations on prosecuting child sexual abuse in North Carolina. William West, the district attorney for the county that includes Fayetteville, said in a statement that his office and the sheriff's department would review Menghi's case. Now 83 and still active in Scouting, Hardwick said Thursday he never contacted some of the parents and never considered going to the police himself. "As the district executive, I followed the procedure I was supposed to follow," said Hardwick, a retired U.S. Army officer. "I handled it according to my instructions. Today, there's no question the guy would be put in handcuffs. But that wasn't the way it was done in those days. Nobody even wanted to talk about it." The current leadership of the Boy Scouts of America, which has hired a public relations firm to handle media questions on abuse, declined to comment on Menghi's case. Menghi said the only reason he stopped molesting boys was because he got caught. "That's when it really hit me. I knew I needed to quit and get help. Then I blacked it out," he said. He said he recognized the emotional and physical pain he caused and would like to apologize to his victims. He said that might not be enough now that his secret file can be read by anyone with an Internet connection. "I don't know what I'm going to do now," he said. "I just don't want to wake up in jail."
[Associated
Press;
Biesecker reported from Raleigh. Associated Press News Researcher Julie Reed in Charlotte contributed to this report.
Follow Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck.
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