Evaluation set for former Morrison Boy Scout leader charged with sex assault

OREGON – A former Boy Scout leader accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy in 2004 won’t have to appear in court again until January after his attorney asked for time for her client to be evaluated.

Jason L. Endress, 44, of Morrison, is charged with two counts of criminal sexual assault and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, stemming from incidents when he was a director at Camp Lowden, a Boy Scout camp east of Oregon.

Endress, a teacher at Clinton High School, in Clinton, Iowa, for 22 years, pleaded not guilty, and was put on paid administrative leave from his teaching job, Clinton School District Superintendent Gary DeLacy said in August.

Endress’ defense attorneys, Cristina Buskohl of Mertes and Mertes in Sterling, did not specify what type of evaluation is being done.

A psychosexual evaluation, however, is ordered in most cases in which a person is accused of a sex offense. It is used to determine a defendant’s social and sexual history, whether the person has any tendencies to commit acts of sexual misconduct and his or her risk of offending or reoffending. It is not an indication of guilt.

Buskohl asked Ogle County Court Judge John Redington for a continuance Wednesday, and he set the next hearing for 1 p.m. Jan. 17. The prosecution did not object.

“I am giving you way more time, so I expect you to get the evaluation done,” Redington told Endress.

Typically, pretrial conferences, or status hearings, are held once a month or so.

Endress was arrested June 25 after the Ogle County Sheriff’s Department received a call June 23 from Emily Cross, chief operating officer of the Blackhawk Area Council, who told police the organization’s hotline received a call with the allegations.

The council is chartered by the national Boy Scouts of America and is headquartered in Rockford, serving southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois. In Illinois, it runs Canyon Camp between Stockton and Apple River and Camp Lowden.

During the Aug. 16 preliminary hearing, Ogle County Sheriff’s Lt. Brian Ketter testified that he contacted the hotline caller, who said he was a camper at Camp Lowden in 2003 and 2004, when Endress, then 25, was a director.

The man said he met Endress when he was 14, they “got along very well,” and he returned as a camper in 2004, when their “bond grew closer,” Ketter testified.

“He said they had sexual contact several times,” Ketter said, adding that the boy also visited Endress’ home in Fulton after the boy got permission from his mother.

“Was the sexual contact at Camp Lowden before or after he was at the defendant’s home?” Assistant State’s Attorney Allison Huntley asked.

“After the contact at the home,” Ketter said.

The boy, now 25, said he and Endress “touched each other” while in the chapel at Camp Lowden, Ketter said. According to court documents, the sexual contact occurred May 24 and Sept. 6, 2004.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney James Mertes, Ketter said he didn’t know what type of “director” Endress was in 2004, but he knew it was a “supervisory” position.

When Mertes asked how many incidents there were at Camp Lowden involving his client, and their duration, Ketter said he did not know.

Mertes asked why the man waited 19 years to accuse Endress.

“He told me that it really started to bother him when he turned 25, and that it was wearing on him, so he called the hotline looking for some help,” Ketter said.

Under redirect questioning, Ketter told Huntley that he and an Illinois State Police special agent listened in on a telephone conversation that the man had with Endress on July 20.

The boy asked Endress “‘when we had sex and everything,’ if he loved him,” Ketter said. “He said, ‘Yes, I did.’”

Ketter also said Endress asked the man whether he had told his therapist about the incident, and then wondered if it had been reported.

When the man told Endress he had called the BSA hotline, Endress said, “something like that ... I could royally be screwed,” Ketter testified.

Endress is free on $100,000 bond after posting 10%, or $10,000.

Endress has no criminal history in Iowa or the Sauk Valley, according to court records.