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NH Supreme Court Considers Camp Fatima Sex Abuse Lawsuit

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9 months ago

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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.

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“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.

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“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.

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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.

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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. 

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New Hampshire

Bill to outlaw using student IDs to vote clears NH Legislature

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4 hours ago

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March 9, 2026

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Bill to outlaw using student IDs to vote clears NH Legislature





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New Hampshire

NH cold case solved 40 years after police found man’s skull in woods

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16 hours ago

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March 8, 2026

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NH cold case solved 40 years after police found man’s skull in woods


Local News

Investigators partnered with a nonprofit genetic genealogy analysis organization to identify the man who the remains belonged to.

Warren Kuchinsky was born in 1952 and last known to be alive in the mid-1970s. New Hampshire Department of Justice

By Darin Zullo

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2 minutes to read

After nearly four decades, a man whose skull was discovered in the New Hampshire woods has been identified.

Warren Kuchinsky was born in 1952 and was last known to be alive in the mid-1970s, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark Hall said in a statement. In 1986, his skull was found in a wooded area in the town of Bristol.

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At the time, investigators weren’t able to identify whose skull it was, according to officials. Last year, however, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner partnered with the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization, to solve the case using forensic genetic genealogy techniques.

Kuchinsky’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing of a surviving family member, according to officials. There is no evidence that his death was caused by foul play, according to the statement.

Founded in 2017, the DNA Doe Project partners with law enforcement, medical examiners, and volunteer genealogists to apply investigative genealogy to John and Jane Doe cases. By analyzing DNA profiles and building family trees from publicly available genetic databases and historical records, the organization has helped solve more than 250 cases nationwide.

“We are honored to have partnered with the State of New Hampshire on this case,” DNA Doe Project Team Leader Lisa Ivany said in the statement. “Through the power of investigative genetic genealogy and the dedication of our volunteer genealogists, we were able to develop a critical lead in less than 24 hours. We truly hope that this identification brings long-awaited answers to Mr. Kuchinsky’s family.”

Initial DNA testing turned up only distant matches, so the DNA Doe Project selected the case to be worked on at a virtual retreat in May 2025, according to the organization’s case profile. Over the course of a weekend, more than 40 genealogists from the U.S., Canada, England, and Scotland collaborated virtually to work on the case.

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Within hours, the team discovered that the unidentified man had roots in New Hampshire and Quebec, according to the profile. They later zeroed in on Kuchinsky, who had attended school in Plymouth, N.H., but had no official proof of life past 1970.

“This identification reflects the power of partnership and scientific advancement,” Formella said in the statement. “The dedication of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the investigative support of the New Hampshire State Police, and the extraordinary work of the DNA Doe Project have restored a name to an individual who had been unidentified for nearly 40 years. We are grateful for their professionalism and commitment.”

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New Hampshire

New Hampshire House Advances One of The Nation’s Most Extreme Transgender Bathroom Bans

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1 day ago

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March 8, 2026

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New Hampshire House Advances One of The Nation’s Most Extreme Transgender Bathroom Bans


The proposal would fine transgender people up to $5,000 for using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity.

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Bathroom bans targeting transgender people have been spreading rapidly across the United States. In previous years, adult bathroom bans in public buildings were limited to a handful of states with extreme laws. This year, they have become one of the primary vehicles for anti-trans legislation nationwide. Kansas was the first to act, passing a bathroom bounty hunter system and invalidating transgender people’s IDs. Idaho and Missouri began advancing their own bills. Now, the New Hampshire House of Representatives has passed its own version — one of the most extreme in the United States, which states that a trans person using the bathroom of their gender identity is a crime under the state civil rights act, violations of which carries hefty penalties. The bill passed 181-164 on Wednesday night, just weeks after Governor Kelly Ayotte vetoed a separate bathroom ban. Republicans are now sending her something far more aggressive — raising the question of whether they are trying to move the goalposts or simply daring her to veto again.

“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, with the exception of RSA 21:3, RSA 21:54, and paragraph II below, all multi-user facilities, including bathrooms, restrooms, and locker rooms located in buildings owned, leased, or operated by any municipality shall be used based on the individual’s biological sex,” reads the new bill. This prohibition is expansive: it applies to parks, rest stops, airports, civic buildings, and more, and could leave transgender people struggling to find a public place to use the restroom across the state.

The bill contains a novel enforcement mechanism not seen in any other state. It declares that a transgender person “asserting” that their gender identity allows them to use the bathroom is against the law under the state civil rights act, turning civil rights protections that were meant to be protective of transgender people into a weapon against them. “It shall be unlawful for any person to assert that their gender identity is a sex other than that defined in RSA 21:3 for the purposes of accessing places or services restricted on the basis of sex,” reads the bill. Such violations could result in fines of up to $5,000 per incident and even jail time if a person violates a resulting court injunction by continuing to use the restroom.

The bill also contains provisions for private businesses. It permits any owner or operator of a “place of public accommodation” — a category that under New Hampshire law includes hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, bars, and concert venues — to restrict bathrooms by assigned sex at birth. The bill then immunizes those businesses from discrimination claims: “Adoption or enforcement of a policy pursuant to this section shall not be deemed discrimination under RSA 354-A or any other state law,” it reads.

A separate bill, HB 1217, also passed on Wednesday. That bill permits governmental buildings and businesses to classify bathrooms and locker rooms by assigned sex at birth — similar to the bathroom bans Ayotte has already vetoed. It passed by an even wider margin, 187-163. It contains no enforcement mechanism, but rather, states that bathroom bans and sports bans are not discriminatory towards transgender people under New Hampshire law.

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The bills are part of a larger movement towards bathroom bans for transgender people. Just last month, Kansas passed a bathroom ban that allows every citizen in the state to become a bounty hunter, where reporting transgender people in bathrooms can net them $1,000 per trans person caught. This law also invalidated trans people’s drivers licenses in the state. Meanwhile, Idaho and Missouri are both advancing extreme anti-trans bathroom bans of their own, with Idaho’s ban even applying to private businesses, making it against the law for a private business to allow a trans person to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

The bills are substantially more extreme than the one vetoed by Governor Ayotte just weeks ago. In a veto statement of a bathroom ban last month, Ayotte stated, “I believe there are important and legitimate privacy and safety concerns raised by biological males using places such as female locker rooms and being placed in female correctional facilities… At the same time, I see that House Bill 148 is overly broad and impractical to enforce, potentially creating an exclusionary environment for some of our citizens.”

It remains unclear why Republicans are pushing an even more extreme version of a bill their own governor has already vetoed three times. The bill still needs to pass the New Hampshire Senate and be signed by Ayotte to become law. One possibility is that the more extreme HB 1442 is designed as cover for HB 1217 — making that bill appear moderate by comparison and improving its chances of earning a signature. Another is that Republicans believe they can pressure Ayotte into signing, or are simply laying the groundwork for an override attempt down the line. Regardless, HB 1442 is one of the most extreme bathroom bans moving through any state legislature in the country, and transgender people across New England will be watching closely as it advances to the Senate.

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