- A New Hampshire jury heard closing arguments Thursday in a lawsuit over alleged abuse at Sununu Youth Services Center.
- Plaintiff David Meehan claimed he was routinely beaten, raped and kept in solitary confinement. More than 1,000 other former residents have since come forward, and 11 former state employees have been arrested in the case.
- Meehan’s attorney, David Bicinanzo, suggested a settlement of more than $200 million, or more than $1 million for each institutional sexual assault charge, would be reasonable.
Jurors heard closing arguments Thursday in a landmark case that holds New Hampshire responsible for abuse in youth detention centers.
Plaintiff David Meehan went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later, alleging brutal beating, rape and solitary confinement at a youth development center in the 1990s. Since then, 11 former state employees have been arrested and more than 1,100 other former residents have filed lawsuits alleging 60 years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
Meehan’s attorney, David Vicinanzo, told jurors that more than $200 million in damages was appropriate, with $1 million for each sexual assault charge. He argued that the state’s clear negligence fostered a culture of abuse characterized by widespread brutality, corruption, and a code of silence.
Plaintiff’s father testifies against plaintiff in NH juvenile detention center abuse case
“They don’t understand it yet,” Vicinanzo said. “They don’t understand the power they had, they don’t understand how they abused it, they don’t care.
But the state’s attorney said Meehan’s lawsuit was based on “speculation and conjecture mixed with a lot of cynicism” and that the state should not be held liable.
Lawyer Martha Gaithwaite said: “There was no widespread culture of abuse.” “This was not the den of injustice that it had been portrayed to be.”
Gaithwaite said there was no evidence that facility management or senior state officials knew anything about the alleged abuse.
“Conspiracy theories are no substitute for actual evidence,” she said.
Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, stands among the trees on January 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
Mr Meehan, who was the first to be sued and the first to go to trial, spent three days on the witness stand describing his three years at the Manchester facility and its aftermath. He told jurors that his first sexual experience was when he was violently raped by a staff member at the age of 15, and that another staff member, whom he initially thought was a caring father figure, was a daily He said he started torturing her and once sexually assaulted her by putting a gun to her head.
“I have to somehow hold my own and show myself as a man for all that these people did to this boy,” he said. “I’m always paying the price for what they did.”
Meehan’s lawyers called more than a dozen witnesses. Among them: a former employee who said she faced resistance and even intimidation when she raised concerns or investigated; a former resident who said she was gang-raped in a stairwell; and a former resident who said she found suspicious bruises on her body. This includes teachers who have. Meehan and six other boys spent their time there.
The state called five witnesses, including Meehan’s father, who answered “yes” when asked if his son had a “false reputation.” Other witnesses include the longtime principal of the youth center, who showed no signs of abuse for 40 years, and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, not post-traumatic stress disorder, as Meehan’s side claims. There was also a psychiatrist who did.
State attorneys cross-examined Meehan, portraying him as a violent child who kept causing trouble at the youth center and a delusional adult who exaggerated and lied to get money. . In his closing statement, Mr Gaithwaite apologized if he had suggested Mr Meehan deserved to be mistreated.
“If I have said or done anything to give that impression or to suggest that I have no sympathy for Mr. Meehan, I regret that,” she said. “My job was to ask difficult questions about difficult topics so that I could see the full picture of all the evidence.”
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But her approach highlighted an unusual power dynamic in which the attorney general’s office defends the state in civil cases while prosecuting suspected perpetrators in criminal cases. Although the state sought to discredit Meehan in this case, it will rely on his testimony when the criminal case goes to trial.
