Current:Home > NewsBoth sides argue for resolution of verdict dispute in New Hampshire youth center abuse case -TruePath Finance
Both sides argue for resolution of verdict dispute in New Hampshire youth center abuse case
View
Date:2025-04-17 09:27:53
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The $38 million verdict in a landmark lawsuit over abuse at New Hampshire’s youth detention center remains disputed nearly four months later, with both sides submitting final requests to the judge this week.
“The time is nigh to have the issues fully briefed and decided,” Judge Andrew Schulman wrote in an order early this month giving parties until Wednesday to submit their motions and supporting documents.
At issue is the $18 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in enhanced damages a jury awarded to David Meehan in May after a monthlong trial. His allegations of horrific sexual and physical abuse at the Youth Development Center in 1990s led to a broad criminal investigation resulting in multiple arrests, and his lawsuit seeking to hold the state accountable was the first of more than 1,100 to go to trial.
The dispute involves part of the verdict form in which jurors found the state liable for only “incident” of abuse at the Manchester facility, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center. The jury wasn’t told that state law caps claims against the state at $475,000 per “incident,” and some jurors later said they wrote “one” on the verdict form to reflect a single case of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from more than 100 episodes of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
In an earlier order, Schulman said imposing the cap, as the state has requested, would be an “unconscionable miscarriage of justice.” But he suggested in his Aug. 1 order that the only other option would be ordering a new trial, given that the state declined to allow him to adjust the number of incidents.
Meehan’s lawyers, however, have asked Schulman to set aside just the portion of the verdict in which jurors wrote one incident, allowing the $38 million to stand, or to order a new trial focused only on determining the number of incidents.
“The court should not be so quick to throw the baby out with the bath water based on a singular and isolated jury error,” they wrote.
“Forcing a man — who the jury has concluded was severely harmed due to the state’s wanton, malicious, or oppressive conduct — to choose between reliving his nightmare, again, in a new and very public trial, or accepting 1/80th of the jury’s intended award, is a grave injustice that cannot be tolerated in a court of law,” wrote attorneys Rus Rilee and David Vicinanzo.
Attorneys for the state, however, filed a lengthy explanation of why imposing the cap is the only correct way to proceed. They said jurors could have found that the state’s negligence caused “a single, harmful environment” in which Meehan was harmed, or they may have believed his testimony only about a single episodic incident.
In making the latter argument, they referred to an expert’s testimony “that the mere fact that plaintiff may sincerely believe he was serially raped does not mean that he actually was.”
Meehan, 42, went to police in 2017 to report the abuse and sued the state three years later. Since then, 11 former state workers have been arrested, although one has since died and charges against another were dropped after the man, now in his early 80s, was found incompetent to stand trial.
The first criminal case goes to trial Monday. Victor Malavet, who has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, is accused of assaulting a teenage girl at a pretrial facility in Concord in 2001.
veryGood! (43)
Related
- California DMV apologizes for license plate that some say mocks Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- Kamala Harris gives abortion rights advocates the debate answer they’ve longed for in Philadelphia
- Bachelorette's Devin Strader Breaks Silence on Jenn Tran Finale Fallout
- Kate Gosselin’s Son Collin Accuses Her of Tying Him Up, Keeping Him in Family’s Basement
- Where will Elmo go? HBO moves away from 'Sesame Street'
- EPA says Vermont fails to comply with Clean Water Act through inadequate regulation of some farms
- Who Is Dave Grohl's Wife? Everything to Know About Jordyn Blum
- Poverty in the U.S. increased last year, even as incomes rose, Census Bureau says
- Tom Holland's New Venture Revealed
- The Oklahoma Supreme Court denies a request to reconsider Tulsa Race Massacre lawsuit dismissal
Ranking
- Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
- Flavor Flav Warns Snoop Dogg, Pitbull After Donald Trump's Pet Eating Claim
- Who is Mauricio Pochettino? What to know about the new USMNT head coach
- South Carolina, UConn celebrate NCAA championships at White House with President Biden
- The FBI should have done more to collect intelligence before the Capitol riot, watchdog finds
- Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner are declared divorced and single
- Poverty in the U.S. increased last year, even as incomes rose, Census Bureau says
- Ex-boyfriend and alleged killer of Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei dies
Recommendation
John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
The Trump campaign falsely accuses immigrants in Ohio of abducting and eating pets
Police in Tyreek Hill incident need to be fired – and the Dolphins owner must speak out
Hawaii voters asked to ensure protection of same-sex marriage
The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
Opening statements are set in the trial of 3 ex-Memphis officers charged in Tyre Nichols’ death
Check Out All the Couples You Forgot Attended the MTV VMAs
Candace Owens suspended from YouTube after Kanye West interview, host blames 'Zionists'