Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
(12-05) 10:58 PST BERKELEY -- A longtime Sea Scouts leader arrested on suspicion of child molestation was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Berkeley's decision to end the group's rent-free berthing because of the Boy Scout bans on gays and atheists.
Eugene Austin Evans, 64, of Kensington was arrested Tuesday for allegedly abusing four current or former Sea Scout members on his boat, the SSS Farallon, over the past several years, said Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.
Evans, who has been the Farallon's skipper for 35 years, is being held in lieu of $1 million bail on six felony counts of sexual assault, including allegations of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, oral copulation with a minor, penetration with a foreign object of a minor and showing harmful material to minors, police said.
Evans retired several years ago as a teacher at Encinal High School in Alameda, Kusmiss said.
The Sea Scouts is a Boy Scout affiliate and youth program that enjoyed rent-free berthing at the Berkeley Marina for 60 years. In 1998, the city determined that the Boy Scouts' bans on gays and atheists violated the city's funding standards and told the Sea Scouts to pay rent.
Last year, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city was within its rights to end the rent break. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Sea Scouts' appeal.
Supporters of the Berkeley Sea Scouts organization and Evans have insisted that neither was anti-gay.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/05/BACLTONGF.DTL
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