Ex-Scout Leader Loses Lawsuit Over His Firing

A former Highland Park-area Boy Scout leader who was fired after being accused of registering 1,400 nonexistent members has lost a lawsuit that sought damages for what he considered a wrongful termination.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed the case last week after ruling that former area leader Aster M. Amit submitted fake membership registrations to Boy Scout officials and that he failed to prove he was ordered to do so by his superiors.

The ruling by Judge Stephen E. O’Neil said Amit “simply gave no credible testimony whatsoever” to prove his case.

The judge also cited testimony by Boy Scout executive Edward C. Jacobs that Amit’s termination came because of the fake registrations. “You cheat, you get caught, you’re fired,” Jacobs testified. “When we learn of (cheating), we fire the employee.”

Amit was fired April 3, 1991, from his job recruiting low-income and minority boys in the Highland Park area.

Richard P. Dieffenbach, the attorney for the Boy Scouts, said the ruling vindicates the organization and brings an end “to all the bad publicity that was generated . . . on this subject.”

Amit could not be reached for comment.

The dispute started in March, 1991, when a fired Scout community director claimed that the local council routinely inflated membership rosters to attract larger donations, which sometimes are based on membership.

In response, the area council asked the national organization to audit its membership figures. That audit turned up evidence of 1,400 nonexistent members, all signed up by Amit. The area council fired Amit from his $18,000-a-year job and demanded his supervisor’s resignation.

Boy Scout supervisors have tightened registration procedures since the matter came to light, Dieffenbach said.