Local News in Brief : Scouter Accused of Molestations Was a Big Brother, Foster Parent

A 27-year-old Canyon Country Boy Scout leader arrested on suspicion of molesting 11 boys was also a volunteer Big Brother of three fatherless youths and a foster parent, officials said Wednesday.

Craig Mathias, who is married and an accountant, was arrested last week but is free on $50,000 bail, said a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman.

Mathias allegedly fondled several boys in his Scout troop who were on overnight stays in his rural Canyon Country home. The boys, ages 12 through 14, were allegedly molested for about 18 months before one of the boys told his parents, who complained to sheriff’s deputies, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pam Springer.

Mathias had been a Big Brother for three adolescent boys since January, 1984, but was dismissed earlier in June because of the allegations, said Mark Wild, associate executive director of Big Brothers of America, an organization that matches fatherless children with adults.

Springer said one of the molestation charges to be filed in San Fernando Superior Court this week involves one of the three boys to whom he was a Big Brother.

County Department of Children’s Services officials confirmed that Mathias was a foster parent for one boy but would not comment further.