>>20575777 pb
>GM
trips chkd
>>20575761 pb
>G'Mornin' Anons… Another Day at the Office.
>When Judge McAfee declared he would need 2 weeks to consider Fani Willis case, the optics looked like she would be disbarred and every case she had brought to court would be under scrutiny.
>The fact the "judge" took this long to come to this conclusion looks to me like he wanted 2 weeks to get Fani off the hook. The fact she paid anything back in cash is irrelevant. This was still tax payers money being spent lavishly and without accountability, whilst planning to take down a former President.
>How’s Sununu doing? Just askin’!
>Sunu
New Hampshire AG’s office to play both offense and defense in youth center abuse trials
The first of more than 1,000 lawsuits alleging abuse at New Hampshire’s youth detention center goes to trial next month, as does the first of 11 criminal cases involving former workers
ByHOLLY RAMER Associated Press
March 12, 2024, 5:16 PM
1:10
National headlines from ABC News
Catch up on the developing stories making headlines.
CONCORD, N.H. – Lawyers defending New Hampshire’s state-run youth detention center against allegations ofhorrific abusewill 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 Manchestercame 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.
With both Meehan’s civil case and the first criminal case scheduled for trial in April, a judge’s recent ruling highlights the unusual dynamic of having the state attorney general’s office simultaneously prosecuting perpetrators and defending the state.
Meehan’s attorneys asked Judge Andrew Schulman in January to prohibit the state from undermining Meehan’s credibility and trustworthiness through cross-examination based on a legal doctrine that prevents a party from taking a position in one legal proceeding that contradicts a position it took in another.
“The State cannot be allowed to take a Janus-faced position — wholeheartedly proffering David’s allegations of abuse on the State’s criminal proceedings, while disavowing or discrediting those same allegations in David’s civil action,” they wrote.
Attorneys for the state argued that the request, if granted, would effectively prohibit the state from putting on any defense whatsoever. The doctrine doesn't apply because the defendants in the civil case and prosecutors in the criminal cases are not the same party, they said.
“Plaintiff’s request for what would essentially be a sham trial is what threatens judicial integrity and public confidence in the courts,” they wrote last month. “State defendants’ ability to cross-examine plaintiff, who chose to bring this suit against state defendants, or offer other evidence, does not.”
Schulman denied the motion Friday, issuing a three-sentence order saying that applying the doctrine in question was inappropriate while warning state lawyers about contradicting the criminal indictments.
A spokesperson for Attorney General John Formella did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In the past, officials have defended the decision to oversee concurrent civil and criminal investigations by citing strong “ethical walls” to keep them completely separate.
But Jamie White, a Michigan-based attorney who has been involved in multiple institutional sexual abuse cases, said he disagrees with the ruling and has never seen a similar scenario in which an attorney general’s office is both defending the state and prosecuting abusers. Though he praised Formella for investigating the abuse and bringing charges, he called it “mind-boggling” that Formella didn’t outsource the defense on the civil side to a private firm.
“They can explain it away all they want, but the firewall might as well be made of cardboard,” said White, who has represented gymnasts abused by Dr. Larry Nassar and victims of the late Dr. Robert Anderson at the University of Michigan. “This idea that they can play both sides of the fence is not realistic. It’s not healthy, and it’s not good for the survivors.”
>horrific abuse
>The scandal at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester
In their lawsuits, former residents allege widespread abuse at the detention center between 1960 and 2019. Some say they were gang raped, beaten while being raped and forced to sexually abuse each other. Staff members also are accused of choking children, beating them unconscious, burning them with cigarettes and breaking their bones.
Many are expected to seek compensation through a $150 million settlement fund created by the Legislature. For those who continue in court, White said the latest ruling could have a chilling effect on other victims who trusted investigators on the criminal side and will now fear being scrutinized in an attempt limit the state’s liability on the civil side.
The youth center, which once housed upward of 100 children but now typically serves fewer than a dozen, is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu, father of current Gov. Chris Sununu. Lawmakers have approved closing the facility, which now only houses those accused or convicted of the most serious violent crimes, and replacing it with a much smaller building in a new location.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/new-hampshire-ags-office-play-offense-defense-youth-108061962
>did not know that
>ty
o7
had heard about the center and abuse. But didn't know it was in the news recently.
Checked for recent Sununu news for the last week.
>More of it in ME & VT.