MANCHESTER, N.H. — The cross-examination of a man who says he was raped as a teenager by youth center workers in New Hampshire turned bitter Wednesday, with the prosecutor at one point calling an opposing attorney a “sick man” after a heated argument.
It was the second day in the trial of Bradley Asburywho is accused of holding down a 14-year-old boy Michael Gilpatrick on a staircase in 1997 with the help of a co-worker, while a third co-worker raped the teen and a fourth forced him to perform a sex act.
It is the second criminal trial to emerge from a wide-ranging 2019 investigation into historical abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Asbury, now 70, is one of 11 men who worked there or at an associated facility in Concord who were arrested.
Gilpatrick, now 41, took the stand for a second day and was questioned by defense attorney David Rothstein, who pointed out inconsistencies in his recollection of the events leading up to the alleged attack, including how many times he had been released home from prison . months in advance, what time of day the incident occurred and whether there were other children around.
Gilpatrick said his memory of the details before and after the attack was hazy.
“What I won’t forget, do you want me to keep telling you?” Gilpatrick said during one of many fiery exchanges with the lawyer. “That your client held me down while another man raped me.”
“Go ahead and say it again, in case they didn’t hear,” the lawyer replied. “Say it again.”
“He held me down and raped me,” Gilpatrick said loudly, leaning into the microphone.
“Say it again,” the lawyer replied.
‘Do you want me to keep saying it? You’re a sick man,” Gilpatrick said, before asking the judge for a break and leaving the stand.
Rothstein said the attack never happened and that Gilpatrick was motivated by money. He pointed out that Gilpatrick has received more than $146,000 against an expected payout from a related civil case.
“You’re trying to convey that this is about money, and it has nothing to do with money,” Gilpatrick testified.
Prosecutor Audriana Mekula said the rape occurred after Gilpatrick made a smart comment to Asbury and his colleagues and was then dropped to the ground from behind, picked up by his arms and legs and dragged to a staircase at the juvenile detention center.
Asbury had been fired from the Concord facility three years earlier due to allegations of physical and psychological abuse. But he was later rehired and transferred to Manchester, where he worked until 2001.
He is suspected of complicity in serious sexual assault. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each charge. The process is expected to be completed Thursday or Friday.
A previous case against Victor Malavet ended in a mistrial in September after jurors deadlocked on whether he raped a girl at the Concord facility. A new trial in this case has yet to be scheduled.
The investigation has also led to extensive civil lawsuits. More than 1,100 former residents have filed lawsuits accusing her of physical, sexual or emotional abuse over six decades. In the only civil case brought to trial to date, a jury awarded David Meehan $38 million in May for abuse he says he suffered in the 1990s, although that verdict remains in question as the state tries reduce it to $475,000.
The Associated Press does not generally identify those who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly, as Meehan and Gilpatrick have done.