A former youth counselor and house leader at New Hampshire’’s juvenile jail has been sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.
Bradley Asbury, 70, was found guilty in November of holding down a teenage boy while other staff raped him in the late 1990s. Asbury says he is innocent and will appeal.
More than 1,000 people have come forward alleging they were abused by staff at the state-run Youth Detention Center (YDC) and other facilities run or contracted by the state. Click here to explore an interactive timeline of all the lawsuits and an analysis of what they reveal about the state’s youth facilities.
Asbury was the first former staffer to be convicted in the state's criminal probe.
In a statement, Attorney General John Formella acknowledged the victim's bravery in coming forward and said Asbury's sentence "sends a clear message this type of conduct will not be tolerated in New Hampshire."
Asbury was convicted on two counts of aggravated sexual assault (accomplice) and found guilty of helping three other YDC staff in the rape of Michael Gilpatrick sometime between the fall of 1997 and the following summer. (NHPR does not typically name victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly.)
The trial of one of the former staffers, Stephen Murphy, ended in a mistrial last week, according to the Associated Press. The other two former staffers – Jeffrey Buskey and James Woodlock – await their own upcoming criminal trials.
During the trial, Asbury’s attorney David Rothstein accused Gilpatrick of fabricating the allegations for money, as he is seeking damages from the state in an ongoing civil lawsuit set for trial in 2025.
Prosecutors with the state Attorney General’s office argued Gilpatrick did not tell anyone about the assault because he was afraid of Asbury, who was the house leader of the cottage where Gilpatrick was detained at YDC.
Gilpatrick first testified to abuse by Asbury, Buskey, Murphy, and Woodlock – a group he called “the hit squad” – earlier this year as part of a landmark civil lawsuit brought against the state by David Meehan.
During that same civil trial, a former state official testified about an investigation into the Youth Detention Services Unit, a similar but separate youth detention facility, that resulted in Asbury’s firing in 1994. In a termination letter to Asbury, the then-head of the state Division for Children, Youth, and Families wrote that his conduct demonstrated a “callous disregard for the rights of residents.”
“You have repeatedly engaged in behavior that willfully misuses your supervisory position and constitutes dereliction of duties and is largely responsible for the hostile environment and substantial divisions that exist at YDSU,” wrote former DCYF Director Lorrie Lutz.
Asbury challenged his firing and was eventually rehired at YDC.
