Simi Police to Review Policy on Scouts in Wake of Sex Charges

The Simi Valley Police Department is reviewing its policy toward Explorer Scouts in light of sexual battery charges filed last week against a police officer accused of molesting a female Explorer Scout half his age, police said Friday.

Police are considering limiting the amount of time Explorer Scouts spend in the station as well as the amount of time they spend riding in a car with officers, said Lt. Don Austin, chief of detectives.

“We’re going to examine the entire Explorer program and the policies that pertain to it,” Austin said. “There may be some adjustment in those policies, though we have no intent at this time to do away with the program.”

Specific measures to be undertaken as a result of the internal review will be disclosed by the Police Department later this week.

Provides Career Information

Explorer Scouts is the young adult division of the Boy Scouts of America. The scouting group provides young men and women ages 13 to 20 with career information about police work as well as some experience in the field. About 20 Explorer Scouts help out with law-enforcement work and clerical duties at the Simi Valley police station, according to police.

As a result of a police investigation, Officer Timothy Campbell, 32, has been accused of engaging a 17-year-old Explorer Scout in sexual acts on Dec. 10, 1985. The alleged acts did not occur during an Explorer Scout outing but at a third person’s home when Campbell was off duty, Austin said. Campbell, who was in charge of officer training procedures, did not work directly with scouts.

Campbell was arraigned Friday in Ventura Municipal Court and pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual battery and one count of sexual battery with a minor. Sexual battery differs from rape or statutory rape--intercourse with a person under the age of 18--in that actual intercourse does not occur.

Suspended With Pay

In addition to the criminal proceedings, an administrative investigation will be conducted to determine if Campbell, a five-year veteran, should be expelled from the police force. He has been suspended with pay, pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings, Austin said.

Simi Valley police are also investigating two other officers to determine whether they had an improper relationship with the same girl, according to police spokesman Lt. Rick TerBorch. That investigation, although unrelated to the criminal investigation of Campbell, could result in disciplinary measures against the officers.

Despite the incidents, scouting executives favor keeping intact the Law Enforcement Explorer Scout program.

Getting rid of the program would be “like throwing the baby out with the bath water,” said Hollis Spindle, the Scout executive for the Ventura County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which governs Simi Valley.

“This rarely happens, so we have no guidelines,” Spindle said. He said that in the 18 years he has headed the Ventura County Council, he knew of only one other incident that occurred 14 years ago involving a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy. “So we haven’t really had to worry much about it,” he said.

He added, “We’re certainly not going to recommend we not have any more Explorers there.”

In the past three months there have been three investigations of law enforcement officers’ illicit relations with Explorer Scouts, involving officers in Irvine, San Bernardino and Long Beach, according to news reports.

The scouting organization has not established any guidelines for what they regard as “isolated incidents.”

‘Isolated Situations’

“Boy Scouts have had a long successful experience with all branches of law enforcement and we value that relationship,” said Edward Jacobs, president and Scout executive of the Los Angeles Area Council. “There is no concern among the board. The incidents aren’t mounting that radically. They’re isolated situations.”

Spindle added, “We can’t have a policy that people will not meet and talk to each other when they are not in an Explorer activity. We can’t stop people from being people.”

Lidia Fonseca, 17, who has been in the Explorer program for four years, said she does not think the internal evaluation at the Simi Valley police station should change Law Enforcement Explorer Scout policy. Fonseca was interviewed Sunday at the Country Scene in Hansen Dam, where she supervised other scouts providing security assistance.

“I don’t see any interaction that would lead to any type of romantic involvement,” said Fonseca, who is captain of the Wilshire Division’s 15 LAPD Explorer Scouts. “Our details are normally separate . . . ,” referring to the officers and the scouts.

Maintains ‘Caution List’

Deed Winery, spokesman for the Los Angeles Chapter of Boy Scouts of America, said the nationwide scouting organization does circulate a “caution list” of convicted sex offenders to ensure that scout leaders possess no “background flaws.”

“We don’t blackball as such, we just compile caution lists,” Winery said.

Boy Scouts of America rules do not allow convicted child molesters or acknowledged homosexuals to “associate with scouting,” Jacobs said.

“As soon as they are identified, their association with the program ends,” Jacobs said, adding that those chosen as Explorer Scout advisers must be scrutinized and approved by the organization. “You don’t just walk in and sign up,” he said.

Scouting rules require that co-ed Explorer Scout groups, like Simi Valley’s, have both a female and male leader within the police station, Jacobs said.

Teen-age girls were admitted to the ranks of Explorer Scouts in 1972, according to Boy Scout officials.