A man who oversaw staff training and investigations at a New Hampshire youth detention center said Monday that top-level administrators sided with staff members against residents, while lower-level staff members sided with children who spoke out. He testified that he wanted to punish him.
Virgil Bossum returned to the witness stand Monday for the fourth day of his trial to hold the state responsible for child abuse at Manchester’s Sununu Youth Services Center (formerly the Youth Development Center). Plaintiff David Meehan claims the state’s negligence in hiring and training led to him being repeatedly beaten, raped, and kept in solitary confinement for three years in the late 1990s, but the state is not responsible for the actions of several people. He claims that there is no. Rogue” employee.
Eleven former state employees, including Meehan’s accuser, have faced criminal charges, and more than 1,100 other former residents have filed lawsuits alleging six decades of abuse. This has created an unusual power relationship in which the attorney general’s office prosecutes suspected perpetrators while defending the state in civil litigation.
Former employee talks about sexual abuse and retaliation for complaints at NH youth detention facility
Mr. Bossum, who was the training development manager and then interim ombudsman during Mr. Meehan’s time at the facility, described how he spoke with the facility’s director about investigating what he considered to be substantiated complaints. .
“We talked about it and he said he couldn’t take the child’s word over the staff’s word,” he said. “That was very upsetting.”
Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, stands among the trees on January 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
Higher-level administrators, who oversaw the Manchester facility as well as the Concord pretrial facility, had a similar view, Bossum said. Meanwhile, other staff members took disciplinary action against the teens when the complaints were later determined to be unfounded, he said.
But state attorneys pushed back against Mr. Bossum’s suggestion that administrators were not taking the complaints seriously. Attorney Martha Gaithwaite had Bossum review documents showing an employee was fired for twisting a boy’s arm and pushing him against a wall.
“YDC’s management and leadership terminated the employment of employees who violated the rules in the mid-1990s,” Gaithwaite said.
“They did that on this one,” Bossam acknowledged.
He also admitted he never raised concerns that Meehan was being abused at the time, nor did he draw attention to the wider issue.
“You told the jury there was coercion and possible abuse. You could have gotten to the bottom of what you gave evidence at the time,” Gaithwaite said. said. “If there is a culture of abuse… it is your responsibility as the ombudsman, as the eyes and ears of the leadership, to bring that to the attention of the leadership.”
Bossum testified last week that he felt the practice of putting teenagers in solitary confinement was problematic, but said Monday that it was appropriate under the circumstances. Gaithwaite questioned him in detail about incidents involving Meehan, specifically those in which he was accused of taking another resident hostage and attempting to escape.
Meehan’s lawyer, David Bicinanzo, later said that the intended “hostages” were actually part of the plan. Given that Meehan was being sexually assaulted almost daily at the time, Bicinanzo said, “Is it any wonder that Meehan wanted to run away?”
“Isn’t that normal for humans?” he asked Bossam. “Especially when you think he’s 15 years old and has no power in this situation?”
“Yes,” Bossam said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The youth center, which once housed more than 100 children but now typically houses fewer than 12, was named by former Governor John H. Sununu, father of current Governor Chris Sununu. Hence the name. Since Meehan turned himself in to police in 2017, lawmakers have closed down the facility, which currently holds only those accused or convicted of the most serious violent crimes, and moved it to a far more remote location. Approved to rebuild a small building. They also established a $100 million fund to resolve abuse allegations.
