Former US Rep Gary Ackerman, 76, has been accused of sexually abusing a teenager at Boy Scout camp in the 1960s.
A lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court describes the incident which allegedly took place over five decades ago when Ackerman was a 23-year-old director at the Ten Mile River Camp near Narrowsburg in upstate New York.
The victim, who was 17 at the time, claims Ackerman coerced him into taking a drive and brought him to a secluded back road, where he tried to fondle the boy before forcing oral sex on him.
The suit says Ackerman was a ‘known predator’ and that the Boy Scouts ‘should have known’ he posed a danger to children.
The organization, which has been plagued by hundreds of allegations of sex abuse, told the New York Post it had no record of abuse claims against Ackerman.
The 15-term congressman for Queens and Long Island, who retired abruptly in 2012, has denied any misconduct.
Ackerman’s attorney Oscar Michelen called the allegations against the ‘highly respected’ married father of three slanderous and ‘especially offensive’.
Jordan Merson said the victim is coming forward now because of New York’s recently-enacted Child Victims Act, which opened a one-year window for lawsuits previously barred under the state’s statute of limitations.
‘He did not have a legal basis to file a claim, and now he does,’ Merson said. ‘He’s not doing this for publicity, he’s doing this because he feels he was wronged, and taken advantage of, and he wants to have his opportunity to have his day in court.’ READ MORE: