This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Cache County hunting guide is suing the Boy Scouts of America and a number of Scoutmasters in federal court, claiming someone in the party shot him in the eye, hand and thigh during a pheasant hunt in 2014.
In a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court, hunting guide Craig Bingham, 61, alleges he was permanently blinded in one eye by birdshot when the nine people he was leading opened fire with shotguns on some pheasants March 22, 2014, at a private hunting reserve in Cache County.
The lawsuit states that Bingham gave safety instructions to the hunting party before they began the outing, referred to as a "Boy Scouts of America hunting activity."
"During the [hunt], Mr. Bingham and the hunters were walking and aligned in such a manner that each of the hunters knew, or should have known, the location of Mr. Bingham and the other hunters," the lawsuit states.
After some pheasants were flushed, all nine hunters shot at them, according to the complaint.
"One or more of the hunters shot Mr. Bingham," the suit states.
Bingham has sued all nine members of the hunting party; the Boy Scouts of America; and the BSA's Trapper Trails Council, which serves Northern Utah, Southern Idaho and Western Wyoming.
It is unclear from the lawsuit how many, if any, of the participants that day were minors. But at least four of the hunters were adult Scoutmasters, the lawsuit claims.
"The BSA adult leaders acted negligently and recklessly by ... failing to properly notify and educate the hunters as to the potential for harm if the hunters acted in a negligent or reckless manner, failing to monitor and control the hunters during the BSA hunting activity, and failing to ensure each of the hunters was knowledgeable and able to comply with the basic standards of hunting safety," the lawsuit states.
A spokesman for the BSA Trapper Trails Council did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.