A Damariscotta man who spent over 50 years involved with Camp Kieve is facing two more lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse in the 1960s and ‘70s. Kieve leadership said last month it has confirmed at least 10 cases involving Bill McCook, and stated the camp has updated policies and procedures to prevent a repeat of the “failures of leadership” that covered up allegations and allowed McCook to stay a volunteer for decades.
“We will always be forthcoming, with child safety as our priority,” Kieve Wavus Education Executive Director Sam Kennedy said Tuesday, March 5.
A complaint against McCook filed anonymously in Lincoln County Superior Court last January was joined Feb. 16 by two more from men now in their 60s, one of which also names Kieve Wavus Education as a defendant. The Lincoln County News does not name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent.
A 2021 state law extended the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases, making the suits possible.
In a memo released Feb. 6 detailing an independent investigation into McCook following last year’s filing, Kieve Wavus Education’s board of trustees stated McCook sexually abused at least 10 children up until 1976, half of whom were campers. The alleged incidents took place on and off campus, some within and some outside of McCook’s role as an employee. Several other suspected incidents could not be confirmed, according to the statement.
The incidents followed the same pattern, the memo and court documents stated. After getting a child alone using his official role, McCook would allegedly “induce, cajole, groom, and otherwise direct (victims) to have sexual contact.”
McCook attended the camp in the early 1950s and was a staff member for 13 summers between 1956 and 1976, working up to assistant director. In 1976, he bought land from the camp and built a house there.
The report states that staff had believed he was immediately fired in 1976 after a camper reported sexual abuse; the investigation revealed camp leadership probably knew about two such incidents involving him that summer, yet he stayed at camp through the season.
He remained a volunteer for the next 30 years. In 1996, after losing his job as a teacher at the Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., he lived next to the camp year-round and volunteered heavily on administrative and camper-facing projects. From 2007 onward, the camp “took steps to restrict” McCook’s volunteer work and campus presence following a report he had abused a child on Louds Island in the 1970s, according to the investigation.
Despite McCook’s presence on campus for the next 40 years, the investigation did not turn up any further incidents past 1976.
“We have every confidence that this independent investigation was extremely thorough,” Kennedy said Tuesday, March 5.
The report stated Kieve’s former director, the late Dick Kennedy, knew in 1976 McCook was abusing campers and told several board members.
Henry Kennedy, who took on the director role from his father in 1991, told investigators he did not know why McCook had left Middlesex but assumed it was due to misconduct, possibly with a student.
“While not universally known amongst the KWE community … a number of board members, staff and even campers heard rumors or speculation suggesting that McCook was a child molester,” the report stated.
The first case detailing these allegations, filed as an anonymous John Doe case in Lincoln County Superior Court in early January 2023, names only McCook. That case alleges the plaintiff was sexually abused by him as a camper in 1976.
While the camper was on the sidelines of a camp softball game, McCook allegedly approached and told him to visit McCook’s home adjacent to the camp. The complaint then alleges McCook made sexual contact with him until the summer camp bell rang.
The plaintiff confided in another camper the next day, who then told an instructor.
“As a result of McCook’s sexual abuse and molestation, Plaintiff has suffered severe and debilitating emotional injury, pain and suffering, physical and emotional trauma, and permanent psychological damage,” the complaint states.
It levels one count each of sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and asks for punitive damages.
In an answer to that complaint, McCook either denied all the allegations or stated he did not have enough information to respond, other than the assertion that he currently lives in Damariscotta.
Settlement discussions are ongoing in that case, according to court documents.
In October, Justice Daniel Billings granted McCook’s motion to stay until a decision is made in a case against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland that may determine the constitutionality of the Maine law that extended the statute of limitations.
The first of two complaints filed Feb. 16 of alleges McCook sexually abused the plaintiff when he was 9 or 10 years old, between 1974 and 1975. The plaintiff was a student at Nobleboro Central School and attended an overnight camping trip on Louds Island led by McCook but not organized by Kieve Wavus.
The filing alleges McCook repeatedly isolated the plaintiff from the group to have sexual contact, groping him in several different scenarios.
The case levels one count each of negligence and recklessness, sexual assault and battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and requests punitive damages against McCook.
That plaintiff said in the filing he has had difficulty with healthy relationships, substance abuse, and his mental health, and concludes if the case went to trial a psychologist would likely find the alleged sexual abuse was a significant contributing factor.
The third complaint names both McCook and Kieve Wavus Education. The plaintiff was 11 years old in 1969 when he came to the camp to visit McCook, his relative, who was a counselor. The court filing alleges McCook led the plaintiff to the camp cabin where he was to stay, when the abuse occurred.
That suit contains one count of premises liability against the camp, stating McCook’s likelihood to sexually abuse children if left unsupervised was or should have been foreseeable. Another count of fraudulent concealment states the camp had knowledge of McCook’s past behavior and had a duty to disclose that information and end or modify his employment.
Kieve also faces counts of breach of fiduciary duty, negligent failure to warn, train, or educate, negligent supervision, and sexual assault. Counts against McCook in the case are sexual assault, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and asserts punitive damages.
Both men who filed this year asked the court to place a lien against McCook’s Nobleboro home for $500,000. The documents state it is “more likely than not” the plaintiffs will receive at least that amount in a judgment against him.
Sam Kennedy, the camp’s current director, said that though it has been difficult to learn about the cases, the investigation process and the policy updates that followed have brought standards for child safety that didn’t exist in the 1970s. According to Kennedy, most were in place at KWE before the investigation for years if not decades.
“Humanity and society have come a really long way” since the 1970s, including in the realm of child safety, he said March 5.
According to the report, a second investigator, David Wolowitz, reviewed the camp’s operations finding its policies and procedures should prevent a similar situation from reoccurring.
“It’s affirming to learn that what we’ve done today is beyond industry standard,” Kennedy said.
For example, KWE is licensed by the state as a limited purpose school, which means it follows Maine Department of Education standards for hiring such as fingerprinting. Kennedy said this level of investigation is atypical for the camp industry.
According to the board of trustees, Kieve has twice in the past seven years hired outside firms to investigate a history of sexual abuse.
In 2017, the organization hired legal firm Drummond Woodsum to identify past sexual misconduct victims. After the first suit filed against McCook in January 2023, the camp hired law firm Bernstein Shur to investigate him specifically.
“Despite having confidence in current day policies, procedures and training, we thought it important to better understand the past when we learned of additional allegations,” Kennedy said.
The investigation involved about 50 interviews and thousands of pages of review. It concluded McCook “is a serial predator” and people affiliated with the camp knew or should have known, yet “none took timely steps to fully sever his relationship with Kieve.”
It said the board of trustees governing the camp had inadequate structures, oversight, and conflict of interest policies. That meant no procedure existed to document the abuse, make it available, and report it to the board.
Kennedy said by phone March 5 that the camp takes a “victim-first” approach in responding to the investigation’s results.
“This is not a defensive organization. It’s a proactive and transparent organization,” he said. “‘Victim first’ means you work with the victim and try and understand what they’ve gone through and what they need, and that’s very different from person to person.
“If anything, it’s drawn our community closer together. I’ve had many messages from parents and colleagues expressing support for the transparency that has deepened trust in our community,” he said. “It made me very proud to work for this organization because of the way that we’ve gone about this investigation.”
Attorney Timothy Kenlan, of the Lewiston firm Berman and Simmons, represents all three plaintiffs. He said Monday, March 4, that he does not currently represent any other alleged victims of McCook.
McCook’s legal representation, Steve Smith Trial Lawyers of Augusta, did not return a request for comment by press time.
