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YDC victims speak out against settlement changes: ‘It’s just a slap in the face’

The lawsuits were filed in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, New Hampshire.
Dan Tuohy
/
NHPR
Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, New Hampshire.

This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.

A father of four took the witness stand Wednesday and testified under a protected identity that his wounds were raw once again.

For John Doe 334, recent changes to the state’s settlement fund for survivors of abuse — survivors like him — stripped the process of its trauma-informed and victim-centered mission.

In a black suit and white sneakers, he shared his feeling that these changes are retraumatizing him and the thousands of others who have filed claims for childhood physical and sexual abuse at the state’s hands.

“It makes me feel like they never cared in the first place. So that’s why they’re doing it to us all over again,” he said. “It makes me feel like they’re attempting to re-victimize us when they could be making what they did right.”

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In 2022, the state created the Youth Development Center Claims Administration and Settlement Fund to provide compensation for survivors of sexual and other abuse.

Wednesday’s hearing was part of a continuing series of testimonies before Judge Daniel St. Hilaire in which victims who suffered abuse at the state’s facilities shared their experiences.

During their drafting of the state budget, Gov. Kelly Ayotte and the New Hampshire legislature shifted control over survivor compensation to the governor and attorney general, giving them the power to decide how much survivors like John Doe 334 can receive. These hearings are a key part of a lawsuit challenging these changes.

Previously, these decisions were made by the fund’s administrator, appointed by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and those were final. Now, the administrator is appointed by the governor and the attorney general has the power to veto the administrator’s decisions.

John Doe 334 has already gone through the settlement fund process, received and accepted his award and signed the waiver agreeing not to sue the state over the abuse he suffered.

Now, he said he faces a cloud of uncertainty because of the changes, unsure if the sense of closure he had hoped to find through the settlement fund will ever truly be his.

“It’s just a slap in the face because it’s not real,” he said. “There’s no one that’s let me know that my award was safe or that it would be taken away. It would be the complete opposite of them apologizing for everything that I’ve been through.”

Amy Spencer, an attorney representing John Doe 334 and several other plaintiffs, said around 15 other victims are in the same situation and share his fears and apprehensions.

If their awards are vetoed, they would either have to go to trial or restart the settlement fund claims process all over again.

“The process is extremely long, but the hardest part is not the waiting, it’s knowing that you’re gonna have to tell your story in front of a room full of complete strangers, whether they’re gonna believe you or not,” John Doe 334 said. “It’s very embarrassing. Frightening. It was very hard for me to build up to the point where I was able to speak to these people.”

John Doe 334 testified that he found it deeply emasculating to speak about the sexual abuse he endured as a child, but that telling his story to John Broderick, the former New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice who served as the fund administrator, was a completely different experience — one that allowed him to feel heard without judgment.

“He told me that he’s sorry that this happened to me, which is the first time anyone has said that to me. I felt a feeling of warmth, joy, sent chills in my spine,” he said. “I couldn’t believe that he was actually making up, trying for what had happened.”

Since the end of July, Broderick is no longer the administrator of the YDC settlement fund.

Under the recent changes to the settlement fund process, the next administrator will be appointed by the Executive Branch rather than the Judicial Branch — a shift that many see as a significant departure from the fund’s original structure.

“If you work for the defendant, you can’t be fair or impartial,” said John Doe 334. “My understanding was that the people who have not yet had their cases in a hearing are going to be the ones who suffer the most.”


Find more YDC coverage here, including "The Youth Development Center," a three-part investigative podcast series hosted by NHPR's Jason Moon.

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