Lawyers defending NH youth center against abuse allegations highlight former resident's misbehavior

Attorneys defending the state of New Hampshire on Thursday began highlighting the past misdeeds of man who says he suffered horrific physical and sexual abuse as a teenager at the state’s youth detention center.

Eleven former state workers have been arrested since the state launched an unprecedented criminal investigation into the Sununu Youth Services Center in 2019, and more than 1,100 former residents have sued the state alleging six decades of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The first lawsuit went to trial this week, highlighting an unusual dynamic in which the attorney general’s office is both prosecuting alleged perpetrators and defending the state against allegations raised in the civil cases.

While one team of state lawyers will rely on David Meehan’s testimony when the criminal cases go to trial, another will be questioning his credibility in the civil trial. There were signs of that Thursday when Assistant Attorney General Catherine Denny cross-examined Wayne Eigabroadt, who worked at both the Manchester center and a similar facility in Concord that housed children before their cases were adjudicated.

Denny had Eigabroadt review reports about Meehan’s attempted escape from the Concord facility in 1995, an incident that involved “creating a riot” by releasing detainees from their locked rooms and stealing money from a safe and clothing from other residents. During the incident, another resident held a staff member hostage and stabbed her with a pen, Eigabroadt said.

Eigabroadt also reviewed reports from a 1998 incident in which Meehan was accused of punching another teenager at the Manchester facility and saying, “This is what happens when you open your mouth too much.”

Meehan did not mention any abuse when that incident was investigated, Eigabroadt said, who also said he didn’t remember Meehan filing any separate complaints about sexual abuse.

Under further questioning from Meehan’s lawyer, however, Eigabroadt said residents were told to first approach their assigned counselors with any complaints. Meehan’s counselor was one of the men he accuses of abuse, attorney David Vicinanzo said, and that same staffer wrote the incident report.

“Would you have known that during this period of time Mr. Meehan was being raped almost daily by Mr. (Jeffrey) Buskey?” asked Vicinanzo, who also said Meehan punched the other teenager after he said he heard him being assaulted the night before.

Buskey has pleaded not guilty to 28 charges of aggravated sexual assault involving Meehan and three others who were held at the facility.

The state also pushed back against Eigabroadt’s testimony a day earlier in which he recalled seeing staffers wearing stickers featuring the words “No Rats.” Another former worker had testified that she was often called a rat after she reported suspected abuse, and Eigabroadt said he viewed the stickers as an attempt to enforce a code of silence.

But Denny argued the stickers, purchased by the head of the state employees’ union, were a pro-union message.

The youth center, which once housed upward of 100 children but now typically serves fewer than a dozen, is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu, father of current Gov. Chris Sununu. Lawmakers have approved closing the facility, which now only houses those accused or convicted of the most serious violent crimes, and replacing it with a much smaller building in a new location.

In their lawsuits, former residents allege widespread abuse at the detention center between 1960 and 2019. Some say they were gang-raped, beaten while being raped and forced to sexually abuse each other.

Staff members also are accused of choking children, beating them unconscious, burning them with cigarettes and breaking their bones.

Many of the plaintiffs are expected to seek compensation through a $100 million settlement fund created by the Legislature if a bill to expand its scope is signed into law.