Judge Dismisses YDC Fund Lawsuit Filed By Survivors

By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH

In another slap against the Sununu Youth Services Center sexual abuse survivors, a Merrimack County Superior Court judge on Friday dismissed the lawsuit alleging Gov. Kelly Ayotte gutted the YDC Settlement Fund. The Center was formerly called the Youth Development Center or YDC.

In a barely three-page ruling, Judge James Kennedy dismissed the survivor’s lawsuit with little explanation for the decision.

“[The] Court does not find that the facts as alleged in the complaint constitute a basis for relief,” Kennedy wrote.

The survivors allege that the state pulled a bait and switch on thousands of people who were raped and abused as children while being held in YDC. After the state entered into an agreement with lawyers for the plaintiffs to encourage survivors to seek a settlement instead of a lawsuit, the state changed the rules to make it easier for Ayotte and Attorney General John Formella to control the process and deny settlement claims, the lawsuit alleges.

Daniel Deane, one of the attorneys for the survivors, said in a statement on Friday they plan to appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

“The court’s order is disappointing to the thousands of child abuse survivors who the State of New Hampshire promised a fair process,” Deane said in his statement. "We will appeal this wrongful decision, and we are optimistic that the Supreme Court will rule that the State cannot legally break its agreements with these survivors. We will continue to pursue justice for these survivors.”

Kennedy states in his ruling that he relied largely on the decision handed down in September by Judge Daniel St. Hilaire to deny an injunction against the state from using the Settlement Fund rules rushed through this summer by Ayotte and Formella. St. Hilaire’s September ruling essentially found that the state is not bound by any agreement concerning the YDC Settlement Fund’s operating rules.

St. Hilaire took himself off the case months after the ruling when survivors demanded to know if he had a conflict of interest. St. Hilaire denies that he’s applied for the open Supreme Court seat. Ayotte, the most prominent named defendant in the YDC Settlement Fund lawsuit, makes the final choice on Supreme Court applicants. Her office is refusing to make public the names of sitting judges who have applied for the post.

The New Hampshire legislature first created the Settlement Fund in 2022 in order to try to avoid costly civil lawsuits. But survivors were unimpressed with the fund and its maximum payouts for the abuse they suffered. Some of the survivors were repeatedly raped, beaten and tortured as children by YDC employees who were then protected by their supervisors in a state-sponsored coverup.

It was clear the Settlement Fund wasn’t gaining traction with the survivors, as only about 100 claims had been filed a year into the program. According to testimony entered into the record this summer, Formella negotiated with lawyers for the survivors in 2023 and 2024 to make the Settlement Fund a more attractive option. Those negotiations resulted in changes to the Settlement Fund passed by the legislature in 2024, including upping the settlement amounts, and setting up an independent administrator who would have final say over the offers. The attorneys then agreed to encourage their clients to file settlement claims rather than go through a lawsuit.

John Broderick, the retired New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice, was agreed on by the state and the plaintiff attorneys to be the administrator. Under the 2024 law, Broderick served independently and only answered to the Supreme Court if there was a complaint about his performance. The result was 1,700 survivors agreeing to file a Settlement Fund before the June 30 deadline.

Ayotte’s changes went into effect on July 1, one day after the deadline to apply for a settlement. Her new rules make the Fund Administrator a political appointee answerable to her instead of the Supreme Court. Additionally, Formella now has the authority to veto settlement offers made by the administrator. Deane told Kennedy in December that he was aware of three offers out of 15 that Formella had already vetoed.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.