BRENTWOOD, N.H.—In an unusual case in New Hampshire, the state attorney general’s office is criminally prosecuting state workers accused of sexual abuse of minors detained at a state-run youth detention center while simultaneously defending the state against lawsuits filed by more than a thousand victims of the alleged abuse.
“I’ve never seen it happen before. I do believe it’s a conflict of interest,” Rus Rilee, an attorney for one of the victims, told The Epoch Times on June 24 following a hearing for a civil suit related to the youth center.
He said the state should have appointed a special counsel in the case “a long time ago” and that “it’s way too late for that now.”
State prosecutors declined to comment following the hearing.
The hearing in question had to do with the case of a man named David Meehan, who sued the state over the sexual abuse he experienced as a juvenile detained at the Youth Development Center (YDC) in Manchester, New Hampshire, now known as the Sununu Youth Services Center.
He testified that the abuse started when he was just 13 and continued until he was released from the center.
In May, after only three hours of deliberation following a month-long civil trial, a jury awarded Mr. Meehan $38 million for the severe sexual abuse he experienced at YDC.
The payout was the largest in New Hampshire history for a case of this kind.
Dispute Over Award
While the jury sided with Mr. Meehan, who gave accounts of more than 100 separate incidents of being sexually assaulted, jurors indicated on the verdict form that the award was based on a single “incident.”The New Hampshire Department of Justice (NHDOJ) has argued that under a state government immunity statute, an award against the state is capped at $475,000 per incident.
“The jury awarded $38 million in damages but found that Mr. Meehan had proven that only one incident had occurred,” the NHDOJ said in a May 3 statement following an emergency motion asking the court to uphold the state law. “Therefore, today’s jury verdict will result in an award of $475,000.”
The jury foreperson contacted Mr. Rilee, one of Mr. Meehan’s lawyers, to express outrage at the state’s interpretation of the verdict form and the fact that Mr. Meehan would only receive $475,000.
“I’m so sorry. I’m absolutely devastated,” the jury foreperson wrote, according to court documents filed by Mr. Meehan’s attorneys.
A second juror also contacted Mr. Meehan’s attorneys about the verdict, stating that when the jury indicated on the verdict form that there was “1 incident/injury,” they were referring to the injury being complex post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from more than 100 incidents of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.
The juror said they were not informed of an award cap based on the number of “incidents” indicated on the form.
“The state is making their own interpretation of the ruling that we made, and that is not right for them to assume our position,” the juror wrote. “David should be entitled to what we awarded him, which was $38 million.”
In his order, he outlined the five options before the court. They include ordering a new trial, having each juror testify about the deliberations process, accepting the state’s argument to cap the award at $475,000, or interpreting a “single incident” to mean a collection of all the incidents.
He also discussed what he called “the rock bottom worst option,” which would be to recall the jury for the “purpose of clarifying its verdict,” something which has been proposed by Mr. Meehan’s lawyers.
At the June 24 hearing, Judge Schulman instructed the parties to submit briefs to support their proposed solution and said he will then hold a hearing to hear oral arguments on them.
Mr. Rilee told The Epoch Times he expects the matter will likely end up in the hands of the state Supreme Court or even the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the meantime, state attorneys are preparing to defend the state against more than a thousand other civil lawsuits related to the alleged abuse that occurred at YDC, meaning the state must try to discredit the plaintiffs’ testimony while simultaneously trying to secure criminal convictions against the accused YDC workers, meaning they also have to bolster Mr. Meehan’s credibility.
“It really is nonsensical,” Mr. Rilee said.
The state’s DOJ and attorney general have argued that the state is not civilly liable because it did not know about the abuse. It also downplayed the allegations in Mr. Meehan’s case.
“There was no widespread culture of abuse,” Martha Gaythwaite, a contracted trial attorney for the state, said in closing arguments in the Meehan trial. “This was not the den of iniquity that has been portrayed.”
The allegations against workers at the detention center span more than half a century dating back to 1960, with allegations as recent as 2019.
Oversight of State Agencies
Mr. Meehan and other victims of alleged sexual abuse at YDC specifically blame the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, which also oversees the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).Earlier in June, Republican state Rep. Leah Cushman made a motion during a legislative hearing to suspend all House rules to create a special committee to investigate the entire operations of the state’s family court and youth services system, which has come under scrutiny over allegations of corruption, government overreach, and mishandling of child abuse cases.
The June 14 motion failed in vote of 247–120.
“My heart really goes out to all the victims of the interconnected systems of family court, DCYF, and juvenile justice in this state,” she said.
“They come year after year to hearings asking for reform, saying there are problems with conflicts of interest, collusion, deprivation of rights, and cover ups. The people showed us with notice exactly how constitutionally required due process is being violated. We know it’s happening. And we have a duty to provide remedy.”
