CONCORD, N.H. — A significant legal settlement has been reached involving the New Hampshire attorney general’s office and a man who claimed he was the victim of a gang rape at the state’s youth detention center during the 1990s.
The settlement amount stands at $10 million, a resolution in the lawsuit brought by Michael Gilpatrick. This case was on the verge of moving to trial, which would have made it the second of over 1,300 similar cases. However, both parties concurred on an out-of-court settlement, according to Gilpatrick’s legal team.
The compensation is notably higher than the maximum payout available through the state’s settlement fund designed for abuse victims, yet it is substantially less than the $38 million awarded in May by a jury in the first case of its type to go to trial. The substantial jury verdict is presently under contention, with the state pursuing a reduction to $475,000.
At 14, Gilpatrick found himself at the Youth Development Center in 1997, where he remained for three years. His lawsuit described heinous abuses by ten staff members at the Manchester facility, involving sexual and physical assaults including recurrent rapes and being choked until losing consciousness.
“At YDC, there was no one to confide in,” he mentioned in a 2021 interview. “You were entirely engulfed in your fears every single day.” He added, “That place shaped us into who we became. I’ve since transformed, but leaving there, I felt monstrous.”
One of the incidents recounted by Gilpatrick involved two staff members restraining him in a stairwell while another conducted the rape, and a fourth forced Gilpatrick into further sexual acts. These allegations spurred criminal charges for four former staffers, whom Gilpatrick described as operating like a “hit squad,” with two trials already having taken place.
Brad Asbury, aged 70, received a 20 to 40-year sentence for being an accomplice to sexual assault. Another trial for Stephen Murphy, who faced allegations of rape, ended in a deadlock, resulting in a mistrial. Murphy, denying the accusations, is slated for three more trials involving other ex-residents.
“They operated in concert, entering cottages to assault the children,” Gilpatrick stated during the inaugural civil trial. “Systematically, they would assault each of us down the line.”
With this settlement, Gilpatrick is relieved from enduring another potentially traumatic court battle. He had given testimony in two criminal trials, which at times drew sharp exchanges with defense counsel.
Gilpatrick chose silence initially about the assaults, as dorm leaders were implicated, and for years, tried to suppress his experiences. “It wasn’t until I stopped blaming myself,” he shared on Jan. 16, “that I realized I needed to speak out.”
Since 2019, the attorney general’s office investigation has led to the arrests of eleven former youth counselors, although charges against one were dismissed, with another deemed unfit for trial, and a third deceased awaiting trial. Two convictions have been secured, with another case requiring a retrial after ending undecided.
Gilpatrick and others who have come forward publicly allow the disclosure of their identities despite being sexual assault victims, in line with general practice.
The youth detention center, which once accommodated over 100 children but now sees fewer than a dozen, bears the name of former Gov. John H. Sununu. Legislative measures have been undertaken to close the facility, now only holding individuals charged or convicted of severe violent offenses, and plan its replacement with a smaller, new location.