New Hampshire
A lawsuit alleging abuse at a NH youth center is going to trial. There are 1,000 more to come. – The Boston Globe
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — It started with three words: “They raped me.”
David Meehan’s disclosure to his wife seven years ago set into motion an unprecedented criminal investigation into New Hampshire’s state-run youth detention center, which was built in the 1850s as a “house of reformation.” It is now called the Sununu Youth Services Center, after former Gov. John H. Sununu, the father of the current governor.
Eleven former state workers face criminal charges, and dozens more are accused in the nearly 1,200 lawsuits former residents have filed against the state alleging abuse spanning six decades. The first lawsuit, filed by Meehan four years ago, goes to trial this week.
“It’s heartwarming in a way to know that I helped these other people find the strength to be able to speak the truth about their experience,” Meehan told The Associated Press in 2021. “But at the same time, it hurts in a way that I can’t explain, knowing that so many other people were exposed to the same types of things that I was.”
Meehan originally was the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit that a judge later threw out. Now, his individual suit is the first to go to trial, with a batch of others expected later this year. Jury selection in Rockingham County Superior Court is expected to be completed Tuesday morning, followed by opening arguments.
The trial is expected to last weeks and will be the most public display yet of an unusual dynamic in which the state attorney general’s office has been simultaneously prosecuting perpetrators and defending the state against allegations raised in the civil cases. While one team of state lawyers tries to undermine Meehan’s credibility, a separate team will rely on his account to prosecute former workers during the upcoming criminal trials.
“This case and the criminal cases are closely interrelated,” Judge Andrew Schulman wrote last month. “The evidence in this case comes in part from the criminal investigation. In determining what course to choose in either venue, the Attorney General cannot possibly separate the facts into two piles, one civil and one criminal.”
Meehan was 14 when he was sent to what was then called the Youth Development Center in Manchester in 1995. Over the next three years, he alleges he was routinely beaten, raped hundreds of times and held for months in solitary confinement. According to his lawsuit, one worker who subjected him to nearly daily abuse initially gained his trust by giving him snacks and arranging for him to play basketball with local high schoolers. He accuses other workers of standing guard or holding him down during assaults, and says when he told a supervisor how he got a black eye and split lip, the man cut him off and said, “Look little fella, that just doesn’t happen.”
The lawsuit seeks at least $1.9 million for past and future lost income, plus compensation for pain and suffering, permanent impairment and loss of quality of life. It accuses the state of breaching its duty to act in Meehan’s best interest and of enabling the abuse by being negligent in hiring, training and supervising employees.
The state denies those allegations and maintains it is not liable for the intentional criminal conduct of “rogue” employees. The state also disputes the nature, extent and severity of Meehan’s injuries, argues that he contributed to them and that some of the alleged physical abuse in question was “excused as necessary to maintain order and discipline.”
The state also argues that Meehan waited too long to come forward. New Hampshire’s statute of limitations for such lawsuits is three years from the date of injury, but there are exceptions in cases when victims did not know of the harm or its link to the wrongful party.
On the criminal side, the statute of limitations for sexual assault involving children runs until the victim turns 40. Ten men have been charged with either sexually assaulting or acting as accomplices to the assault of more than a dozen teenagers at the Manchester detention center from 1994 to 2007, while an 11th man faces charges related to a pretrial facility in Concord. The first criminal trial had been scheduled to start this month, but a judge last week delayed it until August.
Schulman, the judge overseeing Meehan’s trial, has said those charges do not make anything in Meehan’s case more or less probable. He’s also warned Meehan’s attorneys to stick to the facts.
“This is a lawsuit, not a Manichean battle between light and darkness,” he wrote last month. “Improper appeals to passion, which ring like a bell that cannot be unrung, are the stuff that mistrials are made of.”
WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) today endorsed Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH) for the United States Senate, citing his sustained leadership on Armenian American legislative priorities, his principled stand against U.S. arms transfers to Turkey and Azerbaijan, and the stark contrast he offers to a likely Republican opponent whose family holds a multi-million dollar stake in a mining company profiting from Azerbaijan’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artsakh.
Rep. Pappas — the favorite to win the Democratic nomination — is expected to face former U.S. Senator John E. Sununu, the leading contender for the Republican nomination in the race to succeed retiring Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
“Chris Pappas has shown up — year after year, vote after vote, letter after letter — for justice for the Armenian people,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “He has stood with displaced Artsakh Armenians, with the families of hostages held in Baku, and with every Armenian American family asking their government to stop arming the regimes that target Armenians. That is the kind of leadership Armenian Americans want representing them in the United States Senate.”
A Substantive Pro-Armenian Record
A member of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, Rep. Pappas has compiled one of the most consistent pro-Armenian records in the U.S. House, earning a sustained “A” grade on the ANCA Congressional Report Card across multiple Congresses. He is a perennial co-signer of the Armenian Caucus’s annual foreign aid appropriations letters – supported by the ANCA – calling for robust U.S. humanitarian assistance to Armenia and Artsakh refugees, expanded U.S.-Armenia security cooperation, and the strict enforcement of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act restrictions on military aid to Azerbaijan.
Rep. Pappas signed the June 2025 Armenian Caucus letter affirming the right of return for Armenians forcibly displaced from Artsakh, and the FY2026 foreign operations appropriations letter advancing the full slate of ANCA-backed priorities. Across multiple Congresses, he has cosponsored the Artsakh Blockade Resolution (H.Res.108), the Armenian Genocide Education Act, and a range of measures supporting Section 907 enforcement, Global Magnitsky sanctions against Azerbaijani officials responsible for war crimes, and continued U.S. recognition of and education about the Armenian Genocide.
Leading the Fight Against U.S. Arms Sales to Turkey
As Co-Chair of the Congressional Hellenic Caucus, Rep. Pappas has emerged as one of Capitol Hill’s most forceful voices against U.S. fighter jet sales to Turkey, a fight the ANCA has supported at every turn. In September 2025, he led a bipartisan letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth opposing the Trump Administration’s discussions with President Erdogan over the sale of F-16 and F-35 aircraft to Turkey, despite Ankara’s continued possession of Russian S-400 missile systems in violation of U.S. law.
“Congress has consistently upheld bipartisan restrictions on Turkey’s access to the F-35,” Pappas and his colleagues wrote. “Any move to reverse this policy without first securing the statutorily required certification would be a clear violation of U.S. law, undermine Congressional authority, and signal to others that U.S. law and strategic principles can be disregarded.”
In prior Congresses, Pappas secured passage of a bipartisan amendment to the FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting the sale of F-16s to Turkey, an effort the ANCA actively championed.
A New Hampshire Voice for the Armenian American Community
Rep. Pappas’ Congressional office has engaged directly with New Hampshire’s Armenian American community throughout his tenure, listening to constituent concerns and translating them into legislative action.
“Chris Pappas has been there for our community when it counted,” said Alla Gevorgyan, ANCA activist from New Hampshire. “He took the time to understand the issues facing our community, ensured our concerns were heard, and — most importantly — translated engagement into meaningful action.” Granite State Armenian Americans know we have a real friend in Chris Pappas, and we are proud to stand with him in this race.”
A Stark Contrast: The Sununu Family’s Anglo Asian Mining Holdings
The race also presents Granite State voters with a sharp choice on questions of corruption, accountability, and complicity in the genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artsakh. Former Senator John E. Sununu, the leading Republican contender, is the son of John H. Sununu, who holds an estimated 9 to 10 percent stake (valued at roughly $16 million) in Anglo Asian Mining, a company operating gold, copper, and silver mines in Azerbaijan. His brother, Michael Sununu, serves as a Non-Executive Director of the same company.
Anglo Asian Mining publicly welcomed Azerbaijan’s 2020 military assault on Artsakh as opening new commercial opportunities, and moved aggressively to operationalize mining sites in territories from which Armenians had been displaced. The company’s claims to mining rights in Artsakh – including the Kashen mine in occupied Martakert – were among the pretexts cited by Azerbaijan for its 2022-2023 blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the nine-month siege that preceded Azerbaijan’s September 2023 genocidal ethnic cleansing of more than 120,000 indigenous Armenians from their homeland. Anglo Asian began copper production at Kashen in 2025.
“Armenian Americans – and every American who cares about human rights – deserve to know whether their next Senator’s family is profiting from the ethnic cleansing of an indigenous Christian people,” Hamparian added. “The Sununu family has direct financial and governance ties to a company cashing in on Azerbaijan’s genocide and occupation of indigenous Armenian lands. That is a question John E. Sununu will need to answer to New Hampshire voters.”
Armenian Americans and all New Hampshire voters can learn more about Rep. Chris Pappas’s record by reviewing his ANCA Report Card and visiting Congressional and campaign websites.
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A soaking rain is expected to arrive Thursday evening across New Hampshire, where moderate drought still persists.
The National Weather Service reports that thunderstorms are possible in central New Hampshire and wind gusts could reach up to 40 mph.
Their forecast indicates that the White Mountains and foothills could get the heaviest rainfall, as much as 1 inch.
Related: Ongoing drought could fuel a more intense wildfire season in NH
Rangers with the state Division of Forests & Lands posted Wednesday’s fire danger at moderate levels.
WMUR reports firefighters from half a dozen communities responded in Deerfield on Tuesday to help the Deerfield Fire Department contain a brush fire, which was exacerbated by windy conditions.
After this rain storm, New Hampshire can expect to see mostly sunny days Thursday and Friday. The next chance of rain is Saturday afternoon and evening.
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