Brentwood, NH — Both sides in a landmark trial over abuse at a New Hampshire juvenile detention center returned to the courtroom Monday, seven weeks after jurors returned what remains an unresolved verdict.
A jury awarded $38 million to David Meehan in May, but found the state liable for only one “incident” of abuse at the Youth Development Center in Manchester. Jurors were not told that state law limits claims against the state to $475,000 per “incident,” and some later said they wrote “one” on the verdict form to reflect a single case of stress disorder. post-traumatic stress resulting from more than 100 episodes. of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
Meehan’s attorneys have asked Judge Andrew Schulman to either throw out only the part of the verdict in which jurors wrote down an incident, allowing the $38 million to stand, or to order a new trial focused solely on determining the number of incidents. In the meantime, the state has asked him to impose the cap. Schulman has not yet ruled on those motions, and at a hearing Monday, attorneys said more proceedings are coming.
In a May 24 order, Schulman said imposing the limit would be an “unconscionable miscarriage of justice.” He didn’t go that far on Monday, but said there was a disconnect between the ruling and the finding of an incident.
“We don’t know exactly what the jury was thinking,” he said. “But $38 million doesn’t add up to one incident.”
Although they did not argue as such at trial, attorneys for the state said jurors appeared to have defined the incident as “a single harmful condition” to which the plaintiff was exposed and, as such, the verdict should stand. David Vicinanzo, one of Meehan’s attorneys, characterized that position as “The state is essentially saying, yes, 100 rapes, 200 rapes, it all equals one rape.”
“What reasonable person thinks that?” he said.
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 charges against one of them were dropped after the man, now in his 80s, was declared incompetent to stand trial.
During the four-week trial, Meehan’s lawyers argued that the state fostered a culture of abuse marked by widespread brutality, corruption and a code of silence. The state, which described Meehan as a violent child, a troubled teenager and a delusional adult, argued that he waited too long to sue and that he should not be held responsible for the actions of “dishonest” employees.
Schulman already rejected what he called the two worst options: reconvening the jury or questioning it about its decision. Other options would be to order a new trial or adjust the number of incidents on the verdict form. The latter would be something like a process by which a judge can add damages to an original amount awarded by the jury if a defendant waives a new trial. While Monday’s discussion included possible outcomes such as appeals to the state Supreme Court, Schulman said he was trying not to focus on that kind of speculation.
“My job is to dictate the moves in front of me and not necessarily figure out everyone’s subsequent moves on the chess board,” he said.
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