New Hampshire
NH Supreme Court Considers Camp Fatima Sex Abuse Lawsuit
By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – It’s now up to three judges whether or not a man who says he was raped by Fr. Karl Dowd is allowed to seek justice under the New Hampshire constitution.
The case illustrates the conflict between legislature’s 2020 law that removes the statute of limitations in child sex abuse civil complaints and Article 23 of the New Hampshire Constitution, which prohibits retroactive application of new laws.
The alleged victim, who claims he was raped in the 1970s while he was at a summer camp run by the Diocese of Manchester, brought his lawsuit in 2023. Under long-standing New Hampshire law, the man’s deadline to bring a lawsuit against the Church passed in the 1980s.
While the legislature removed the statute of limitations for child sex abuse complaints in 2020, the Diocese argues the legislature cannot pass laws that violate the constitution.
A skeleton-crew Court heard arguments Wednesday from attorney Scott Harris, representing the victim, and Olivia Bensinger, representing the Diocese. Supreme Court Associate Justices Patrick Donovan and Melissa Countway were joined by Superior Court Justice Charles Temple to hear the case.
Associate Justice James Bassett did not take part in the arguments due to his pending retirement, and Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald is disqualified from the case.
The victim’s lawsuit was dismissed last year when Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Leonard ruled that the law cannot be applied retroactively.
“The prohibition against retrospective application of laws under Article 23 of the New Hampshire Constitution must be respected in this case because “[r]etrospective laws are highly injurious, oppressive, and unjust” in every case, Leonard wrote.
Statute of limitations harm victims, enable abusers, and pervert justice, according to Harris. The 2020 law is absolutely meant to apply retroactively for people like the alleged victim, Harris said.
“The language could not have been clearer,” Harris said.
Victims of childhood abuse can take decades to even acknowledge what they suffered, and by the time they are ready to make a report the law closes the door on their ability to seek justice. The 2020 law ending limits for child sex abuse victims is a clear solution the legislature came up with to help victims, Harris said.
The 2020 law does not include any reference to retroactive enforcement. According to Harris, that is because the law is intended to apply retroactively.
“Our legislature would have included that language if they thought it necessary,” Harris said.
But Bensinger argued such language on retroactive enforcement isn’t needed since it is assumed that laws must comply with the constitution.
“[The 2020 legislature] knew the constitution protects against retroactivity,” Bensinger said.
The right to a statute of limitations defense is a vested right for all defendants, Bensinger said, and any change to the limits must also account for the constitution. Donovan expressed skepticism at Bensinger’s interpretation of the law.
“It seems to me that you’re reading language into the statute that isn’t there,” Donovan said.
Dowd was the priest in charge of the diocese’s Camp Fatima and Camp Bernadette for decades despite serious red flags. Dowd was promoted by the diocese in 1971 to be the camp director, after a prior sexual assault complaint at St. Bernard Parish in Keene where Dowd was accused of abusing a 16-year-old boy.
During Dowd’s leadership at Camp Fatima the summer camp become an abyss of child sex abuse, according to court records, with multiple priests and religious staffers raping the boys.
“Several other boys who attended Camp Fatima alleged that Dowd sexually abused them, including one man who alleged he was abused more than 100 times before 1975. Id. The abuse was so pervasive at the Camp that one former camper stated, ‘it was nothing to see somebody take a little kid, go into a cabin, [and] close all the shutters,’” court records state.
Camp Fatima is in Gilmanton Iron Works.
The alleged victim claims he was first assaulted by Dowd when other staffers directed the boy to hide in a particular cabin. The camp staffers were playing a game known as “strip the campers,” in which the boys were chased and forcibly stripped if caught by the staff. The victim was told he could avoid being stripped by going into the cabin, according to court records.
The alleged victim went into the cabin alone, and saw it was furnished with a bed. Dowd soon entered, joined him on the bed, and allegedly began his assault.
“Dowd proceeded to sexually assault the plaintiff while telling him that ‘God loved him and wanted him there, and so did Dowd,’” according to court records.
Dowd was the camp director until 1990. Dowd’s notorious abuse wasn’t known to the public until after he died in 2002 when several former campers came forward. But the victim alleges the diocese knew that Dowd sexually assaulted children.
Several former campers filed a class action lawsuit against the diocese in 2002, months after Dowd died while on vacation in Florida. That lawsuit was later settled out of court.
The son of Cher is scheduled to be in court Wednesday for a hearing over allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home earlier this month.
It was the second arrest in a matter of days for Elijah Allman, 49, of Malibu, California, who was detained Feb. 27 after allegedly acting belligerently at a prestigious prep school in New Hampshire. It was unclear if Allman had any connection to either St. Paul’s School or the home in Windham, New Hampshire.
Allman remains in the Rockingham County Department of Corrections in what is called preventive detention, Superintendent Jonathan Banville said.
Allman, whose father was the late singer Gregg Allman, faces two counts of criminal mischief, one count of burglary and a count of breach of bail for breaking into the home on March 1. Police said in a report that Allman did not have permission to be at the home and forcibly entered it .
In the incident at the prep school, Allman was charged with four misdemeanors: two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening. Allman was also charged with a violation of disorderly conduct, which is illegal in the state but not considered a crime.
At about 7 p.m. that day, Concord police responded to reports that Allman was disturbing people in the dining hall of St. Paul’s School. After charging Allman, police said he was released on bail as his case works through the court system.
Allman did not respond to an email requesting comment, and a phone number for him was not working. It was unclear from the court records if Allman has an attorney.
In December 2023, Cher filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying Allman struggles with mental health issues and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.
The petition from the singer and actress said Elijah Allman is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund. But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.
A few weeks later, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica Uzcategui denied the request, saying she was not convinced that a conservatorship was urgently needed. Allman was in the courtroom with his his attorneys, who acknowledged his previous struggles but argued that he is in a good place now, attending meetings, getting treatment and reconciling with his previously estranged wife.
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
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