State lawmakers voted Friday to honor — for now — their commitment to settle with victims abused as children at New Hampshire's former youth detention center. But the future is uncertain for more than 750 victims with outstanding claims, because the state has not agreed to continue the settlement fund beyond June.
Lawmakers’ hesitancy to commit to keeping the settlement fund going has been driven by Attorney General John Formella, who lobbied them three years ago to establish it. He is now raising complaints about how the funds’ administrator, former state Supreme Court justice John Broderick, has paid victims and their lawyers.
Broderick warned lawmakers this month that the $160 million they’ve put into the fund could be gone as early as April, with hundreds of claims pending and more expected to be filed. The deadline to submit a claim is June 30.
Broderick asked the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee Friday for $15 million to cover claims through June; Formella did not support the request. Broderick has also asked the Legislature to include $150 million in the next state budget to cover claims for the next two years.
Senate President Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican, told NHPR in an email Friday that it’s too soon in the budgeting process to predict what lawmakers will do with Broderick’s $150 million request.
But he left Friday’s fiscal meeting with some of the $15 million he asked for. After a 90-minute closed-door meeting, the committee voted 7-3 to give Broderick $5 million now and told him he could renew a request for the remaining $10 million next month.
Rep. Mary Jane Wallner of Concord was among the three Democrats to vote against giving Broderick just $5 million now.
“I believe that Mr. Broderick has laid out why he needs the $15 million to get through the end of the year, and I don't think that giving him $5 million in chunks over the next two or three months is really an efficient way for us to go forward,” she said.
Rep. Jess Edwards, an Auburn Republican, said he agreed with Wallner, citing concerns about how victims and their attorneys who are considering a settlement would interpret a decision to spend less. But Edwards knew he didn’t have the votes to prevail.
“I think another vote on a different amount would be more confidence-inspiring and maintain the integrity and continuity of this fund, which is vitally important,” he said during the meeting. “I will vote for it, but I wish it were more.”
Formella made two arguments to lawmakers when he proposed the Youth Development Center settlement fund in 2022. One: It was the “right thing” for victims, he said, because it would spare them the trauma of a trial.
And two: It was pragmatic. The state would almost certainly spend more defending what could be more than 1,000 lawsuits from those claiming they suffered abuse while held in state detention as children, he warned. And if the state lost a case, there would be no way to control a jury award, whereas the state caps settlement payments at $2.5 million.
The average award has been $500,000.
Two recent lawsuits support both of Formella’s arguments for the settlement fund.
A jury awarded one YDC victim $38 million in May, though the Attorney General’s Office is challenging the amount in court. Earlier this month, Formella’s office agreed to pay a second person, Michael Gilpatrick, $10 million to settle his lawsuit.
In an interview with NHPR Thursday, Gilpatrick said he agreed to settle in part because of the respect the state’s lawyer showed him.
“He gave me a heartfelt apology,” Gilpatrick said. “I cried. My wife cried.”
“He told me he had followed my case,” Gilpatrick said, “(and) he was proud of the fact that I was able to speak out and help so many other people come forward.”
It’s that kind of “victim-centered” approach Formella advocated for when he first proposed the fund.
The Legislature still has to approve Gilpatrick’s $10 million settlement. If it doesn’t, David Vicinanzo, one of his lawyers, said they will proceed to trial.
Vicinanzo said he has recommended the settlement process to hundreds of his clients. He’s also representing many others in court. If the state opts to abandon the fund, he said it should prepare to spend tens of millions of dollars on jury verdicts.