The Boy Scouts of America were hit with four lawsuits filed by more than 200 men alleging that they were victims of sexual abuse while participating in Arizona based Boy Scouts chapters as children.

The Boy Scout lawsuits were filed on Wednesday to meet the Dec. 31 deadline set by the Arizona legislature in May 2019, which opened a window for childhood sexual abuse victims in certain scenarios to file lawsuits, according to 12 News, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix.

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The named defendants include Grand Canyon Council, Catalina Council, the Las Vegas Area Council, and the Crossroads of the West Council of Boy Scouts of America.

The 261 “John Does” claim that they were between the ages of 6 and 18-years old when the abuse occurred by scout leaders and other scouts. The men allege that the local chapters knew or should have known about the abuse.

Eight Boy Scouts Sexual Abuse Lawsuits

This comes after eight lawsuits were filed on Dec. 21 alleging that Boy Scouts leaders in Arizona sexually abused children in incidents going back decades, 12 News reported.

The Grand Canyon and Catalina Boy Scout councils issued statements about the abuse of children in scouting, saying that they were outraged that Boy Scout leaders in Arizona used their positions in the organization to sexually abuse children.

“We believe victims, we support them, we pay for counseling by a provider of their choice and we encourage them to come forward,” the statements said.

Calmes alleges in his lawsuit that he was abused by one of the Boy Scout leaders in Arizona back in the mid-1980s.

According to Calmes, the leader used his position to sexually abuse him during Scouting trips when he was in his early teens. The church should have been aware that the Scout leader was likely to sexually abuse children, he said. The Scout leader had in fact been charged with five counts of child molestation in California in 1983, at least a year before he used his position to abuse Calmes.

Having spent decades dealing with his abuse in silence, Calmes felt that he was always on guard and was unable to form real bonds with people, he told the AP. Calmes decided to begin speaking about his abuse about a year ago when he met the woman whom he later married.

A lawyer representing Calmes noted that the Scout leader was never criminally charged with Calmes’ abuse, but was removed from Scouting in 1988 and died in 2011.

Four of the eight lawsuits were filed in Maricopa County, three in Pima County, and one in Mohave County.

These lawsuits come as Arizona reaches the end of its one-time lookback window granted by lawmakers last year, allowing victims who missed the extended cutoff point of their 30th birthday to sue. Victims were given until the end of 2020 to file civil litigation against their assailants, along with any institutions that may have ignored, covered up, or otherwise allowed the abuse to occur.

These institutions often included churches, youth organizations, and schools, among others. The Boy Scouts of America has been embroiled in sexual assault litigation, filing for bankruptcy protection back in February as it faced hundreds of lawsuits over decades’ worth of sexual abuse.

Now, nearly 90,000 sexual abuse claims have been filed against the century-old organization.

There may be many more child sexual abuse lawsuits filed in Arizona, including over Boy Scout leaders in Arizona, before the end of the year—and the closing of the lookback window.

Other lawsuits were filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in late December, alleging that leaders covered up decades of sexual abuse perpetrated by Boy Scout leaders in Arizona. In this latest wave of litigation, seven male victims each filed lawsuits alleging that church officials were notified of abuse allegations, but these leaders never went to the authorities with these issues. Instead, the lawsuits allege, church bishops would tell victims to stay quiet while the church conducted its own investigation.

The church-sponsored Boy Scout leaders in Arizona that had been accused of abuse would, in the meantime, either continue in their roles or be assigned to another troop, according to the lawsuits.

Until Jan. 1, 2020, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the single largest sponsor of the Boy Scouts of America.

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