New Hampshire jury finds state liable for abuse at youth detention center and awards victim $38M

BRENTWOOD, N.H. — A New Hampshire jury awarded $38 million to the man who blew up allegations of abuse at the state’s juvenile detention center on Friday, in a landmark case that found the state’s negligence caused him to be beaten as a teenager , raped and held in solitary confinement.

David Meehan went to the police in 2017 and sued the state three years later. Since then, 11 former state workers have been arrested and more than 1,100 other former residents of Manchester’s Youth Development Center have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse over six decades.

Meehan’s case was the first to go to trial, and the outcome could affect the criminal cases, remaining lawsuits and a separate settlement fund the state has set up as an alternative to lawsuits.

Over the course of the four-week trial, the state argued that it was not liable for the conduct of “rogue” employees and that Meehan had waited too long to file a lawsuit. The defense also tried to undermine his credibility, saying his case rested on “conjecture and speculation with a lot of innuendo thrown in.”

“Conspiracy theories are not a substitute for factual evidence,” attorney Martha Gaythwaite said in her closing statement Thursday.

Meehan’s lawyers accused the state of encouraging a culture of abuse characterized by pervasive brutality, corruption and a code of silence.

“They still don’t understand,” David Vicinanzo said in his closing statement. “They don’t understand the power they had, they don’t understand how they abused their power and they don’t care.”