BOSTON – A group that promotes sex between men and boys asked a federal judge Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the parents of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley, who was murdered by one of the group’s members.

Curley was killed on Oct. 1, 1997. Salvatore Sicari of Cambridge was convicted of first-degree murder in the case, while Charles Jaynes of Brockton and Manchester, N.H., was convicted of second-degree murder and kidnapping.

Last year, the boy’s parents, Barbara and Robert Curley, filed a $200 million wrongful death lawsuit against the North American Man/Boy Love Association, claiming Jaynes was incited by the group.

In U.S. District Court on Tuesday, lawyers with the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is defending NAMBLA in the lawsuit, said that even though many people may find the group’s beliefs repugnant, their publications and Web site are protected under First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech.

“We contend that the First Amendment was intended to apply exactly to organizations like this. If we can’t protect their rights, then the rights of other organizations are all at risk,” said John Reinstein, legal director of the Massachusetts ACLU chapter.

Lawrence Frisoli, a lawyer for the Curleys, said the boy’s death was a direct result of the encouragement Jaynes received from NAMBLA to sexually attack young boys.

“The lawsuit is about NAMBLA training Charles Jaynes to rape kids,” Frisoli said.

Prosecutors said the men lured the boy from his Cambridge neighborhood with the promise of a new bike, then smothered him with a gasoline-soaked rag when he resisted their sexual advances.

The men molested and suffocated the boy before stuffing his

body into a concrete-filled container and dumping it in the Great Works River in South Berwick, Maine.

The lawsuit alleges that Jaynes joined NAMBLA in the fall of 1996, read the group’s publications and Web site and “became obsessed with having sex with and raping young male children.”

The suit also alleges that Jaynes viewed the NAMBLA Web site shortly before he and Sicari lured the boy. The suit does not allege that Sicari was a member of the group.

“Can NAMBLA be held responsible for Jaynes’ conduct based on these allegations? No,” Reinstein said.

Barbara Curley, the boy’s mother, said the lawsuit is aimed at exposing NAMBLA.

“They got him interested in little boys and taught him how to lure little boys,” she said. “They don’t fall under the First Amendment rights at all.”

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole took the request to dismiss the lawsuit under advisement. He did not say when he would issue his ruling.

Sicari is serving a life sentence without parole. Jaynes can seek parole in 22 years.