A now-retired social studies teacher who taught at the former Youth Development Center (YDC) for over 30 years testified Monday she reported her suspicion that David Meehan was being abused to child protective services in the mid-1990s, but never heard back.
Brenda Wouters told a jury in Rockingham Superior Court she saw bruising that “almost looked like a rainbow” on Meehan, who is now suing the state for what he alleges was years of extreme physical and sexual violence by staff at the juvenile jail.
Wouters testified that she called the state Division of Children, Youth, and Families “and reported that it looked to me like there was something going on that did not look right to me and they took my name and my information and said that they’d get back to me but they never did.”
Wouters’ claim speaks to one of the central issues in the case: whether the state of New Hampshire knew, or should have known, that Meehan was allegedly being abused by YDC staff. Meehan’s lawsuit claims the state enabled the abuse through its negligence.
Wouters testified she made several reports of suspected abuse over her career to house leaders at YDC, to her principal at the YDC school, and in calls to DCYF. At one point during her testimony, she listed the names of seven children at YDC, including Meehan, she said she called DCYF about.
“And in any of these instances did anybody get back to you?” asked one of Meehan’s attorneys, David Vicinanzo. “Any investigator come down to investigate or to interview you about what you saw or what you knew?”
Wouters replied, “No.”
In one alleged incident, Wouters said a child at YDC came to her class with “probably the reddest eyes I’ve ever seen short of a Dracula film. The whites of his eyes were beet red and were swollen,” said Wouters.
Wouters said at first, the student refused to say what had happened. “So, I questioned him a little bit more and he said, ‘Well, ok, um, it was, it was, we were fooling around.’ And then several kids said, ‘No, you were choked out, man. That’s what happened to you.’”
Wouters said the students told her it was staff who choked the resident, but would not provide any more information.
READ MORE of NHPR's coverage of the YDC child abuse scandal here.
Wouters also claimed students complained to her about an inappropriate sexual “game” led by staff.
“I had several students report to me that there would be five or six of them that would be picked out in the unit and the staff would then have them, I’m sorry, masturbate to see who could masturbate the highest on the wall,” said Wouters.
“And whoever managed to be the highest on the wall would get either a soda or an extra half-an-hour of being able to stay up at night or they’d get chips,” said Wouters. “And they would do this while the staff watched and laughed.”
Wouters also testified to a divide between education and residential staff at YDC.
“There appeared to be a wall between us. Residential was not real fond of education for whatever reason,” said Wouters. “They made it extremely hard for us to be able to do much with these young people when we did have them in the classroom.”
Wouters said she had many disputes with residential staff and some were openly hostile to her. At one point, she says residential staff banned her from visiting one of the “cottages” where children were housed at YDC.
“I asked too many questions. I was not somebody that was a ‘yes man,’” said Wouters. “It was like, ‘Why is that happening? Why does he look like that? Why is that this way? Why are their clothes ripped? Why, why, why, why?’ And they were not happy with me.”
During a cross-examination that grew heated at times, Assistant Attorney General Catherine Denny challenged Wouters’ recollection of certain events, including which number Wouters used to call DCYF.
“For all you know, it could have been the wrong number,” said Denny.
“I know I didn’t call Joe’s Bar and Grill. They identified themselves as DCYF,” Wouters shot back.
Denny also raised other reasons children at YDC might have bruises, including from fights with each other.
Denny also highlighted the fact that Wouters has not spoken to police about any of her allegations of suspected child abuse.
“To this day, you still have not reported what you believe you saw to criminal investigators, correct?” asked Denny.
“To this date, no,” said Wouters.
“Then you still have failed to comply with the reporting law, haven’t you?” asked Denny.
“I guess so, yeah,” said Wouters.
Wouters said she only learned of Meehan’s lawsuit in January or February of this year.
Following Wouters testimony, Meehan’s attorneys rested their case.
The state then moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds of a statute of limitations and on the argument that the evidence thus far hasn’t shown that the state itself was aware of any alleged abuse. Judge Andrew Schulman denied the motion, saying he would allow jurors to make the determination.
The state will begin presenting its case to jurors on Tuesday.
