UPDATED: Lawsuit alleges sex-abuse cover-up by Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma

One young victim who reached out to the Index-Tribune recalled that his younger brother would comment on Kilgore’s missing thumb – which he said was lost to an infection – as “God’s way” of punishing him for his abuse.|

BGC of Sonoma Valley CEOs

Cathy Wilson, 2000-2006

David Pier, 2007-2015

Robert Hughes, 2015-2018

Cary Dacy, 2018 to present

A lawsuit alleging a cover-up of sexual misconduct committed by Sonoma resident Paul 'Dwayne' Kilgore was filed on Tuesday against the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley, where Kilgore had been employed from 2002 to 2013.

Kilgore, 70, was found guilty in March of 2018 of six counts of sexual abuse of a minor and sentenced to 150 years in prison.

The civil suit, filed in Sonoma Superior Court by attorneys on behalf of four of Kilgore's victims, who during their years of abuse ranged in age from 6 to 13, alleges that during his 12-year employment with the Sonoma Valley Boys & Girls Club, staff there received multiple complaints and warnings from parents, club participants and its own employees about Kilgore's misconduct, but took no action, enabling Kilgore to continue sexually abusing his young victims for years.

The suit was filed on behalf of the victims by Taylor & Ring, a Los Angeles-based trial law firm. The lead attorneys on the case are partner Dave M. Ring and co-counsel Natalie Weatherford.

Also named as defendants in the suit are the national Boys & Girls Club of America organization and the Petaluma Boys & Girls Club, where Kilgore was employed in 2014, as well as Kilgore himself. The suit says other individuals may be named as defendants in further addendums to the initial filing.

In a statement announcing the suit, Ring said that Kilgore 'used his position of authority to gain trust and take advantage' of the victims 'by manipulating their emotions and sexually exploiting them.'

'The Boys & Girls Club ratified this sexual abuse because they knew it was occurring as far back as 2002,' said Ring, 'yet turned a blind eye, allowing him to continue 'coaching' young boys unsupervised.'

Weatherford said the club could have prevented most of the abuse if it had taken the complaints about Kilgore seriously.

'Instead, the club chose to protect its employee, Kilgore, over the children entrusted into its care,' wrote Weatherford.

The lawsuit provides a timeline of events that allege when specific complaints about Kilgore were made, and when reports of inappropriate conduct by Kilgore were allegedly ignored by club management and staff.

The suit posits that from the time Kilgore was hired at the Boys & Girls Club in 2002 through his resignation in 2013, some club employees had become aware of suspicions, or had received specific complaints by club members, that Kilgore was engaging in inappropriate relationships with club members, including undressing in front of members, having members undress in front of him, commenting on their genitalia, buying them presents and taking them on overnight trips and to his home, and that club staff did not alert parents or law enforcement.

When reached by phone on Tuesday, Ring said that he has evidence that the Boys & Girls Clubs 'went out of their way to keep this problem internal and to protect themselves.'

The lawsuit alleges that the club's employees and executive board members began to notice inappropriate relationships between Kilgore and young boys at the club shortly after his hiring. According to the suit, Kilgore incorrectly answered every question on a 'sexual harassment test' administered by the club, but that his supervisor at the time signed off that Kilgore had completed sexual harassment training and passed the test.

The complaint alleges that the boys attempted to change clothes in bathroom stalls on a trip to a pool and that Kilgore directed the boys to change in front of him and made comments about their penises. According to one of the plaintiffs, he reported the incident to BGCSV employees in 2007, but heard no more about it.

The lawsuit alleges that both club parents and employees complained to club officials about Kilgore's conduct and described his relationships with the young buys as 'inappropriate' and 'red flags.'

Despite these complaints, the lawsuit alleges that the BGC assigned Kilgore to teach a class about puberty and sexual health to boys at the club. The lawsuit contends that Kilgore used this class to groom the young boys and to normalize his touching and sexual advances.

At the time of Kilgore's arrest in 2016, a former club member named Jeremy spoke with the Index-Tribune about Kilgore's inappropriate conduct with him from 2002 to 2007. A former foster child, Jeremy spent most days after school at the club because he was living at the time with his grandmother in her trailer home nearby.

'He got my home number from the Boys and Girls Club and started inviting me and my brothers go do things with him,' said Jeremy. 'Dwayne would grope us and rub our backs and put his hands on our thighs.'

Jeremy said that he complained multiple times to the staff but felt that no one believed him.

'There was a lot of turnover then and each new person we told would say, oh, come on, brush it off – like it was nothing.'

Jeremy recalled that his younger brother would comment on Kilgore's missing thumb – which he said was lost to an infection – as 'God's way' of punishing him for his abuse.

The civil lawsuit filed this week alleges that after years of complaints, the club finally opened an internal investigation into Kilgore's 'relationships with boys outside of the Club' after he took several minor club members on an overnight trip to Hopland in 2012.

According to the lawsuit, during these overnight trips, Kilgore fully undressed in front of the boys, had them undress in front of him and shared a bed with them.

The parents of the boys were contacted, according to the lawsuit, but told only that Kilgore would no longer be allowed to go off-site with members, due to an 'organizational policy change,' but not about any abuse allegations; local law enforcement was not contacted.

A former club employee has provided the Index-Tribune with a string of emails he sent to his supervisor in 2013, in which he voiced his concerns about Kilgore's relationship with club members.

Prior to sending the emails, the employee had just completed a club-sponsored training on how to spot a child predator and he said that warning signs went off immediately.

'As we went down the list of red flags, each one was something Dwayne was known for,' he told the Index-Tribune. 'Seeing kids outside of work, meeting with kids in his windowless office with the door closed, paying the most attention to kids from broken homes, finding a way to be with kids at a pool or hot tub.'

The employee told the Index-Tribune that directly following the training, he laid out his concerns about Kilgore in an email dated Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. It read:

'(Dwayne) has talked to me about how he takes kids to a house he rents out in Willits (or rural Ukiah) where he likes to take the kids because it's quiet and peaceful and secluded. He told me its way off the road, down a long dirt road. He said he likes the place because it has a hot tub… (it) just doesn't seem cool or OK to me as a man, father or Boys & Girls Club employee. After the training today, I feel I'd be doing myself and the Club a huge disservice by not at least mentioning my feelings to you… if you aren't aware of the things I've said, you should be. This seems to be a situation alluded to in the training where if I didn't say anything or something happened later, it would be terrible.'

The employee followed up with another email to his supervisor and another Club manager ten days later.

Just over a month later, in March 2013, Boys & Girls Club CEO David Pier wrote a letter of reprimand for himself, COO Margie Doran and Director of Finance and Human Resources Robyn Cabrera, and copied Board Chair Marchelle Carlton. Ring provided the Index-Tribune with a copy of the letter, in which Pier states his concerns about Kilgore's relationships with members outside of his scope of work with the club.

In the letter, Pier refers to an internal investigation into Kilgore's 'relationships with many Club members beyond his scope of work duties,' an investigation which 'determined that the Club members had been safe in (Kilgore's) interactions with them.' However, 'it also revealed that the scope of his relationship with these members was well beyond the intentions of allowing him to initially mentor the two Club members.'

Pier continued in the letter: 'Club members' safety was jeopardized and the future of the Club as an organization was subjected to a high level of risk' as a result, Pier went on to state that 'He will work to ensure that incident of this nature will not occur in the future.'

When called by the Index-Tribune for a comment on the letter, Pier said he would 'refer all comment to the club at this time.'

Kilgore resigned from the club in September 2013, after being told there was a policy change that would prohibit him from spending time with members outside of work. Within a few months, he had been hired by the Petaluma Boys & Girls Club.

'It was upsetting because it brought up a whole feeling of not being heard at the Sonoma Club,' said the former SVBGC employee, about learning Kilgore had been hired at the Petaluma club. 'I couldn't believe he was working with boys again.'

The employee emailed Robert Marcus, the head of the Petaluma BGC, on March 17 of 2014 as soon as he heard the news. In the email, which he provided to the Index-Tribune, he states that he does not have any proof of Kilgore harming any child, but he writes, 'I have some very serious conflicts about him working with youth.'

He never received a reply.

Upon reviewing the lawsuit on Tuesday, Cary Dacy, the current CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs Sonoma Valley, provided a statement to the Index-Tribune saying the organization had cooperated fully throughout the course of the initial police investigation and would continue to do so.

'The safety and protection of the children we serve remains the number one priority of Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley,' read the statement. 'Our organization is committed to the highest standards of integrity and ethical behavior and does not tolerate inappropriate or illegal activity on the part of any Club staff, volunteer or youth member.'

The civil lawsuit claims the negligence of the defendants resulted in 'personal injuries and damages arising from childhood sexual abuse' and it requests action be determined by trial by jury.

As it is an ongoing legal matter, Dacy said that 'the Club will not comment further on the case until after the legal process has been completed.'

Kilgore is currently serving out his sentence at Mule Creek State Prison in Amador County, California.

Contact Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.

BGC of Sonoma Valley CEOs

Cathy Wilson, 2000-2006

David Pier, 2007-2015

Robert Hughes, 2015-2018

Cary Dacy, 2018 to present

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