Judge Quickly Denies Request to Throw Out $38 Million Verdict in New Hampshire Juvenile Center Abuse Case

CONCORD, NH – The judge who oversaw a landmark trial over a New Hampshire juvenile detention center refused to throw out the $38 million verdict, saying the center’s leadership “either knew and didn’t care or didn’t care to know the truth.” ” about endemic physical and sexual abuse.

Earlier this month, a jury sided with David Meehan, who claimed he was repeatedly raped, beaten and held in solitary confinement at the Youth Development Center in the 1990s. The Attorney General’s Office is seeking to drastically reduce the sentence. While the issue remains unresolved, the state also asked Judge Andrew Schulman to vacate the verdict and enter a ruling in its favor.

In a motion filed Monday, state attorneys again argued that Meehan waited too long to sue and failed to prove that the state’s negligence led to abuse. Schulman quickly denied the motion, ruling in less than 24 hours that Meehan’s claims were timely under an exception to the statute of limitations, and that Meehan had proven “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the state breached its duty of care regarding training. personnel, supervision and discipline.

According to Schulman, a jury could easily have concluded that the facility’s leadership “was, at best, willfully blind to entrenched and endemic customs and practices” that included frequent sexual and physical assaults, as well as “constant emotional abuse of residents ”.

“There may be more to the story, but based on the trial record, liability for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty was proven with geometric certainty,” he wrote.

Meehan, 42, went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later. Since then, 11 former state employees have been arrested and more than 1,100 other former residents of what is now called the Sununu Youth Services Center have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse over six decades. Charges against a former worker, Frank Davis, were dropped earlier this month after the 82-year-old was found incompetent to stand trial.

Meehan’s lawsuit was the first to go to trial. For four weeks, his lawyers argued that the state encouraged a culture of abuse marked by widespread brutality, corruption and a code of silence. The state portrayed Meehan as a violent child, a troubled teenager and a delusional adult who lies to get money.

Jurors awarded him $18 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in enhanced damages, but when asked how many incidents the state was responsible for, they wrote “one.” That triggered the state’s request to reduce damages under a state law that allows plaintiffs against the state to receive a maximum of $475,000 per incident.

Meehan’s lawyers say several emails they received from distraught jurors showed the jury misunderstood the question on the jury form. They filed a motion Monday asking Schulman to set aside only the part of the verdict where jurors wrote “one” incident, allowing the $38 million to stand. Alternatively, the judge could order a new trial based solely on the number of incidents, or he could offer the State the option of agreeing to an increase in the number of incidents, they wrote.

Last week, Schulman denied a request from Meehan’s attorneys to reconvene and consult with the jury, but said he was open to other options for addressing the disputed verdict. The hearing is scheduled for June 24.