A former teacher at a New Hampshire youth detention center on Monday reported suspicious bruises on at least six teenage boys in the 1990s, including the former resident who filed a landmark lawsuit against the state. He testified that he did.
Brenda Wouters, who taught social studies at Sununu Youth Services Center for 35 years, was the last woman called by David Meehan, who is calling for state accountability for the physical, sexual and emotional abuse she suffered as a teenager. became a witness. Since he turned himself in to police in 2017, 11 former state employees have been arrested and more than 1,100 former residents of the Manchester facility have filed lawsuits alleging six decades of abuse.
Mr. Wouters, who retired in 2022, told the civil court that during his three years at the facility, then known as a youth development center, he remembered Mr. Meehan becoming moody and withdrawn. He had two black eyes, she said. Another time, she caught a glimpse of the bruises and asked him to lift her shirt because she could see “rainbow” bruises along his torso.
Witness claims NH detention center leadership has less respect for children’s words than staff
Other teens showed up to school with marks on their necks and arms, Wouters said. The whites of one boy’s eyes were said to be “beet red.”
“It was the reddest eyes I’ve ever seen, not that I watched a Dracula movie,” she said.
Wouters also said the teens had told her about being forced to fight. The staff pitted the stronger children against the weaker ones.
“They then encouraged the kids to go ahead and fight almost to the death until the loser complied with the staff’s demands,” she said.
When she approached housing staff, they shooed her away, Wouters said. She reported her supervisor and called the state Department of Children, Youth and Families multiple times, but she received no further action, she said.
Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, stands among the trees on January 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
However, when questioned by the state attorney, Wouters admitted that she never witnessed the abuse and did not submit a written complaint. She was shown progress reports from the 1990s and also admitted that Meehan was in her class only in the spring of 1996, when she did not allege abuse. But she would have continued to have contact with him after that, she said.
Lawyers for the state will begin their side’s arguments on Tuesday, the 15th day of the trial. In opening arguments earlier this month, the state argued it was not responsible for the actions of “rogue” officials, and during Meehan’s witness examination, he suggested he was lying to get money. The state also claims he waited too long to file the lawsuit. The statute of limitations for such actions is three years from the date of injury, but there are exceptions if the victim was not aware of the connection with the tortfeasor.
After the day’s jury was dismissed on Monday, Assistant Attorney General Brandon Chase asked the judge to enter a verdict in the state’s favor based on a statute of limitations argument.
Judge Andrew Shulman denied the request, saying the jury would decide. Although it may be a “close call” as to when Ms Meehan will realize that she may have a claim against the state as an adult, she said she did not have any such relationships while in the facility or immediately thereafter. He said it was unreasonable to believe that. Shulman said that when she visited the facility with jurors at the start of the trial, she spent some time in Meehan’s old room looking out the window.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“It occurred to me when I was there, this is from a child’s perspective,” he said. “You don’t have a very broad view of the world.”
