New Hampshire AG’s office to play both offense and defense in youth center abuse trials

Lawyers defending New Hampshire’s state-run youth detention center against allegations of horrific abuse will be allowed to undermine an accuser’s credibility when the first of more than 1,000 lawsuits goes to trial next month, even as a separate team of state lawyers relies on his account to prosecute former workers. The scandal at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester came to light after two former workers were arrested in 2019 and charged with abusing David Meehan, a former resident who had gone to police two years earlier. In the four years since Meehan sued the state, nine more workers have been charged and hundreds of other former residents have filed their own lawsuits alleging physical and sexual abuse.