Rhode Island news
Boy Scout volunteer facing charges
01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, July 24, 2008
HOPKINTON — A Warwick father volunteering at Camp Yawgoog with his son’s troop was arrested Monday on charges that he showed pornographic videos on his laptop and gave alcohol and cigarettes to teens at the Boy Scout camp.
Randolph V. Johnson, 44, of 101 Circuit Drive, Warwick, appeared in District Court, South Kingstown, on Tuesday on misdemeanor charges of procuring alcohol and cigarettes for minors and contributing to delinquency. He was released on his own recognizance for formal arraignment Aug. 7.
Hopkinton police said camping director Thomas Sisson called them last Thursday to investigate reports that a parent had shown pornographic movies to juveniles on Monday, July 14.
The police interviewed a 16-year-old who said that Johnson invited him to watch a movie, Beowolf, on his laptop. During the movie, the boy told police, Johnson switched to a pornographic movie that another witness said was titled Wet Butts, which lasted 30 minutes. A few minutes of My First Sex Teacher was shown before people started returning to the site and the movie was turned off, Hopkinton police said.
One of the boys said Johnson offered him a Cape Codder, which he accepted, not knowing the drink contained alcohol. Another boy told the police he took a sip of sour-apple schnapps when Johnson offered it. One reported that he accepted five cigarettes from Johnson. He said he smoked three and saved the other two to show police.
In all, four camp staffers, ages 15, 16, 18 and 22, spoke to the police last Thursday and Friday.
David E. Preston, a spokesman for the Narragansett Council, which operates the camp in Hopkinton for about 8,000 scouts each summer, said Johnson “has been placed on a national ineligible volunteer list.”
“Mr. Johnson’s behavior was inappropriate and completely unacceptable,” Preston said yesterday. He said the teens and one young adult who were approached by Johnson are “a bunch of first-rate Boy Scouts” who “did exactly what they were supposed to do. And because of them, no campers were subjected to this kind of behavior.”
Preston said adult volunteers sleep in separate tents and are required to have at least two scouts present when interacting with any scout.
— With staff reports from Maria Armental.
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