BSA Scout Leader Commits Suicide Days After His Arrest for Child Sex Abuse

Charles Kip Yotter was arrested on September 26, 2019 at his residence in Wildomar, California for suspicion of several felonies including oral copulation with a minor and forcible penetration with a foreign object in December of 2018. The victim was 16 years old at the time. The incident was first reported to the Lake Elsinore Sheriff’s station in June 2019 and after being taken into custody, Yotter was booked in Riverside County and then released on $250,000 bail. On September 30th, Lake Elsinore Sheriffs found Yotter dead at his residence, apparently by suicide.

What media and law enforcement have failed to publicly acknowledge is how the alleged pedophile and victim first became acquainted: Kip Yotter was a scoutmaster of Troop 430 in the Inland Empire Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

Predatory Scout Leader First Met His Victim in 2012

According to Paul Mones, attorney for the victim, his client met Yotter in or around 2012 when he was still a Cub Scout. Yotter was the victim’s Scoutmaster and continued his involvement in BSA Troop 430 in various capacities at least until 2018. “The public deserves to know about the full details of Yotter’s involvement in Scouting and the on-going risk to Boy Scouts of sexual abuse by their Scoutmasters and other adult leaders which has plagued the Boy Scouts of America for almost 100 years, and unfortunately, similar to the victims of Jeffery Epstein, my client will be deprived of seeing his abuser face the consequences of his actions in a court of criminal law.”

It is important for the public to know the affiliation the alleged pedophile had with the Boy Scouts and it is disgraceful how absent that fact has been from reports on the case. Other potential survivors of sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts deserve to know that they are not alone and illuminating Yotter’s involvement with the Boy Scouts may encourage them to speak out about their own abuse.

A Trusted Advocate for Survivors of Boy Scout Abuse

In 2010 Paul Mones won a 19.9-million-dollar verdict against the Boy Scouts, the largest sexual abuse verdict ever against the organization. Under court order the Boy Scouts were forced to release the “Perversion Files”, internal records kept by the Scouts from 1965 through 1985, which detailed hundreds of individuals prohibited from further involvement in scouting due to allegations of child sex abuse.

If you or someone near to you has been a victim of sexual abuse during your time with the Scouts, Paul Mones is the most trusted advocate you can consult on your path to justice. No lawyer has more experience in assisting survivors of child sex abuse in seeking damages from the BSA. Reach out today for a confidential consultation and begin the process of holding your abusers accountable for your trauma.