First witnesses take the stand in YDC civil trial

Apr. 10—A former Youth Development Center worker testified Wednesday afternoon that higher-ups encouraged violence in disciplining the center's residents in the 1990s.

Another worker testified about staffers turning a blind eye to physical and sexual abuse, including rape.

New workers also were told not to trust a resident's word over staffers', said Wayne Eigabroadt, who started at YDC in 1996 as a training coordinator.

Eigabroadt took the stand at Rockingham County Superior Court in a civil lawsuit filed by former YDC resident David Meehan in 2020. Meehan alleges the state failed in its duty to protect him and was guilty of negligence at YDC in Manchester and the Sununu Youth Services Center complex, which replaced the YDC in 1991.

The culture seemed opposed to training programs, Eigabroadt said.

"I was like, 'Is this what I am up against?' We are responsible to train these people, and the better trained they are, the less likely they are to end up in this situation."

Meehan, the plaintiff in the suit, arrived at the center as a 14-year-old in 1995.

Eigabroadt testified about having a conversation with Superintendent Ron Adams, who once told him the policy was, "If any one of these kids give you s---, beat the f--- out of them."

On Wednesday, Meehan wore a dark blue dress shirt and sat facing forward during the testimony. He is represented by a team of lawyers, including David Vicinanzo and Rus Rilee.

The jury heard from three witnesses Wednesday.

Judge Andrew Schulman is presiding over the case. He reminded the jury multiple times about the rules of hearsay, saying people's words as recounted by others can't be accepted as truth during deliberations, but are admissible to show a witness's knowledge of what happened and how the other person responded.

On Tuesday, the jury of eight men and eight women heard opening statements to start the trial, which is expected to last three weeks.

This is the first of many trials in which former YDC residents will seek monetary damages over allegations involving 150 staffers from 1960 to 2018. The lawyers represent more than 1,200 clients.

Earlier Wednesday morning, former staffer Karen Lemoine was the first to take the stand. She worked for YDC from 1989 to 1991.

"It was my experience that it was a horrendous nightmare," she said.

She noticed boys bashed against door frames, dragged down stairs and locked in rooms in only their underwear. Other employees called her a rat when she spoke to supervisors about what she saw, including boys being "completely terrified" and "paralyzed with fear" when she would check on them.

"They would be completely pushed back into the corner standing up, either crying or just staring at me," she testified.

Some of the boys shared their experiences of rape and a room called "The Cage" that was used for punishment, Lemoine said.

Workers were "far too rough and far too impatient" and viewed the abuse as entertainment, she said. Lemoine reported her concerns to lower- level supervisors and then started going to the "boss's boss," including Superintendent Adams.

Catherine Denny of the Attorney General's Office asked Lemoine why she waited 30 years to report the abuse. The office is representing the Department of Health and Human Services in the civil case.

"It took state troopers saying they wanted to hear of any kid being hurt for me to take a risk," Lemoine said. "I felt like I had adequately reported it to someone in charge and it was their job to handle that."

Lemoine left YDC in 1991 before Meehan arrived.

Denny pointed out that Lemoine did not work with the men accused of abusing Meehan, including Jeffrey Buskey, Stephen Murphy, James Woodlock, Richard Brown and Thomas Searles. She did know Frank Davis.

Vicinanzo showed the jury YDC policy from 1994, which called for employees to be disciplined if they failed to report abuse or neglect. Abuse was supposed to be reported immediately to the superintendent.

Eigabroadt testified that complaints weren't taken seriously. Residents would file complaints in a locked wooden book, but many of the handwritten notes would go missing, he testified.

He also testified about staff wearing stickers and putting up posters that read, "No Rats."

"All the supervisors were wearing them," Eigabroadt said. "They were on walls, bulletin boards, walls, cars."

Denny pointed out letters of warning Eigabroadt received as an employee at a pre-trial facility in Concord.

Eigabroadt recalled investigating an attempted escape by Meehan in November 1995 where a staff member ended up being stabbed in the eye with a pen.

The Attorney General's Office also is responsible for prosecuting at least 10 former workers at the YDC, and one from a pre-trial facility in Concord, who have been criminally charged with sexual assault or acting as accomplices in attacks on more than a dozen teenagers from 1994 to 2007.

Eigabroadt will return to the stand on Thursday morning.

jphelps@unionleader.com