The father of a man who says he was regularly raped and assaulted as a teenager in a New Hampshire youth detention center testified briefly Tuesday, saying his son had a reputation for dishonesty.
Daniel Meehan is the first witness called by the state to defend against allegations that the state was negligent in allowing his son, David, to be abused at a youth development center. Since David Meehan 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 over six decades of abuse.
David Meehan’s lawsuit was first filed and the trial began earlier this month. During three days on the stand, state’s attorneys questioned Meehan at length about his childhood, describing him as a violent boy who was accused of physical abuse when his parents tried to impose rules on him. He suggested that it might be. By contrast, the state’s attorney spent little time that Tuesday, questioning Meehan’s father for just over five minutes.
Former teacher at NH youth facility says she reported suspicious bruises on at least 60 teens
Older Meehan said he enrolled his son in Cub Scouts and other activities as a boy and sought help when he complained of sleep problems. He also refuted her son’s claim that his then-wife burned him with a cigarette. Daniel Meehan said his relative, a firefighter with emphysema, doesn’t smoke and doesn’t allow people to smoke in the house.
“Based on all your experiences before he went to YDC and since he went to YDC, does he have a reputation for being untruthful?” asked Assistant Attorney General Brandon Chase. “Yes,” Meehan replied.
Under questioning from his son’s attorney, Daniel Meehan acknowledged that some of the dishonesty occurred while his son was struggling with drug addiction. David Meehan previously testified that he had been using heroin to combat post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from the alleged abuse.
Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, stands among the trees on January 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
Attorney David Vicinanzo also questioned Daniel Meehan about his career as a firefighter, which had kept him away from home, so he didn’t talk much about his children or his ex-wife, with whom he had been unfaithful for years until he found out. He suggested that he did not know. According to the lawsuit, he endured near-daily assaults, rape and long periods of solitary confinement.
Over three weeks, jurors heard testimony from more than a dozen witnesses called by Meehan and his lawyers. They include former employees who said they faced resistance and even threats when they raised concerns or investigated, former residents who said they were gang-raped in a stairwell, and several psychological experts. It was included. In addition to Meehan’s father, the defense’s first witnesses included a woman who spent nearly 40 years at YDC as a youth counselor, teacher and principal, and a child psychologist who criticized previous experts.
Psychologist Eric Murt said Meehan’s experts assumed he was telling the truth without conducting any tests to assess whether he was exaggerating. Ta. Ms Mart, who assessed Meehan when he was 13, said it was fair to say he had significant mental health issues before being sent to a youth center. He also said that when he met the teens at the facility in the 1990s, he saw nothing strange.
A former teacher testified Monday that she saw suspicious bruises on Meehan and six other teens in the 1990s, but former principal Marie Sullivan said she saw signs of abuse. She said no students had ever told her they were being abused.
Sullivan, who retired in 2021, was asked if staff and teachers care about the teens.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“I think they did it because it’s a very hard job and unless you like what you do, you can’t stay,” she said.
