CONCORD, N.H. — A significant civil trial concerning abuse at New Hampshire’s youth detention facility has seen a pivotal development as a judge has issued a preliminary ruling substantially reducing the awarded damages from $38 million to $475,000. Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman had previously noted that decreasing the compensation for plaintiff David Meehan by nearly 99% would represent a “shocking miscarriage of justice.” However, in an order issued on November 4, he expressed his reluctance while also granting the state’s request to impose this cap on the award, with a final judgment expected to follow unless there are unforeseen motions from the legal representatives involved.
Meehan’s allegations, which include severe sexual and physical abuse at the Youth Development Center during the 1990s, spurred a significant criminal investigation that led to numerous arrests. His lawsuit seeks to hold the state accountable and is notably the first among over 1,100 similar claims that have been initiated. Though a jury ruled in his favor in May after a month-long trial, ambiguity regarding the financial compensation arose due to the specifics outlined in the verdict form.
The crux of the dispute lies in a question on the jury’s verdict form asking them to determine “How many incidents does the jury unanimously find the plaintiff has proven by a preponderance of the evidence?” Jurors were not advised that state law limits claims against the state to $475,000 per “incident.” Some jurors later revealed that they recorded “one” on the form to indicate their belief that Meehan experienced a singular case of post-traumatic stress disorder, attributing this to over 100 incidents of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. The state interpreted this response as a finding of liability for only one “incident” of abuse occurring at what is now known as the Sununu Youth Services Center.
Judge Schulman has denied Meehan’s requests for a new trial focused solely on establishing the number of incidents or modifying the jury’s finding of a single incident. While he indicated that a completely new trial could be a possibility, Meehan’s legal team has not made any such requests so far.
At the age of 42, Meehan took his allegations to law enforcement in 2017 and pursued legal action against the state three years later. This effort has led to the arrest of 11 former state staff members, though one of them has passed away and charges against another individual were dropped after he was deemed incompetent to stand trial due to advanced age. The only criminal case that has proceeded to trial thus far ended in a mistrial in September, as jurors could not reach a consensus regarding whether Victor Malavet had sexually assaulted a girl at a different state-operated facility in Concord.
Next week, Bradley Asbury, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting a teenage boy while holding him down during a separate incident involving other staff members, is set to face trial.