Lawyers ask judge to amend YDC verdict
May 14—Lawyers for David Meehan want a judge to amend a jury's verdict by increasing the number of incidents of physical and sexual abuse he endured while a resident at the Youth Development Center in the 1990s.
The jury awarded Meehan $38 million in damages on May 3 after deliberating for several hours following a four-week trial, but the amount came under question when the jury listed only one "incident" on its verdict form.
The Attorney General's Office says Meehan is only entitled to $475,000 because of a per-incident cap under state law.
In a separate request, the AG's Office, which is representing the Department of Health and Human Services in the Meehan case, wants Judge Andrew Schulman to find the statute of limitations has lapsed, making the verdict invalid.
A hearing is scheduled for June 24 on both motions.
In a ruling last week, Schulman said he would not reconvene the jury to answer questions on its verdict. He said, "the finding of 'one incident' is contrary to the weight of the evidence."
Meehan's lawyers, David Vicinanzo and Rus Rilee, said Meehan testified to about 200 incidents of rape, physical assault and emotional abuse. The jury's mistaken interpretation of the "incident" question cannot stand, they said.
"No reasonable jury could have rejected Mr. Meehan's testimony as to all but one of over 200 separate incidents — branding him a liar at worst, or a delusional at best — then nonetheless awarded him the largest monetary verdict in a contested personal injury case in this state's history," they wrote.
The lawyers sought to have an emergency hearing after receiving emails from several jurors. One juror said they found the one incident to be complex post-traumatic stress disorder from the hundreds of injuries.
Statute of limitations
Assistant Attorney General Brandon Chase asked the court that Meehan's claims be barred by the three-year statute of limitations.
Meehan filed his lawsuit in January 2020 after making a police report in January 2017.
"A reasonable plaintiff, with a duty of reasonable inquiry, would have known of his injuries and the mere possibility of a factual connection to YDC well before January 2017," Chase wrote. "The evidence presented at trial demonstrates that plaintiff knew about his alleged injuries long before January 2017."
Chase wrote the plaintiff presented no evidence that DHHS failed to adequately train and supervise the alleged abusers.
"All of the harm that plaintiff alleges he suffered at the hands of his alleged abusers stemmed from independent criminal conduct, of which DHHS had no notice of, that was well outside the scope of their employment," he wrote.
Chase asked Schulman to grant a judgment in the favor of DHHS.
Vicinanzo and Rilee said the state "went for broke in this case and attacked David Meehan at every turn" during trial.
"The jurors plainly were not persuaded by the State Defendants' clumsy efforts to discredit Mr. Meehan," they wrote. The jury found the state 100% liable for Meehan's injuries.
Another approach could be a new limited trial to consider the number of incidents, but Vicinanzo and Rilee say a complete new trial would be unnecessary.
"Mr. Meehan would have to give painstaking and emotionally taxing testimony (for both the jurors and himself) testimony regarding the assaults he suffered at the hands of the State Defendants' employees," the filing reads.
Meehan's lawsuit has sparked more than 1,000 similar lawsuits by former residents of the juvenile detention center. His is the first of the cases to go to trial.
