Before she recognized him as the man she believed molested her son, Shawna Cleveland handed him a piece of chocolate.
The group of a dozen or so boys and girls ages 8 to 18 met every Tuesday, wearing military-style uniforms they were responsible for pressing and starching themselves. Release forms handed out at the August meeting identified the Young Marines as sponsors of the camping trip, along with the “Scouts” – because members of a local Boy Scout troop planned to attend. It was listed on the Young Marines’ website. The Young Marines and Boy Scouts would pay Menna directly for each of their members who wanted to attend, about $150 apiece.
Cleveland would spend most of the next decade fighting for accountability from Menna, as criminal and civil court cases dragged on and on; from the Young Marines, which introduced Menna to her son and then claimed the man was never their responsibility; from the Boy Scouts, which also denied responsibility for Menna in court.
By the early 1990s, the then-30-something bachelor who lived with his parents had taken up extreme wilderness sports. Rock climbing and caving suited his meticulous nature, according to interviews with dozens who knew him. He turned the basement of his parents’ suburban Atlanta home into a virtual REI store.
Menna began to attend clinics for first responders. On one such trip, he stayed at Curry’s house on Lookout Mountain. Menna worked his way into the groups by skillfully dropping names. One leader would recommend him to another. And so on. Katie remembers helping out dozens of boys. He says he needs to inspect boy for ticksNoah rode next to Menna in the cab of his dad’s truck headed to Osage Hills State Park for the Labor Day outing in 2007. As the tree-lined hills rose out of the Oklahoma plains, Noah listened while Menna talked and talked.
“That was priority Number 1: making sure there were no ticks on you,” Noah, now 24, told USA TODAY. “And if there was, to come to him.” He ran a flashlight and two fingers across Noah’s skin. It felt like 45 minutes, with Menna asking him to flip over from his backside to his front five or six times, Noah says.
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