New Hampshire Youth Development Center abuse claims and settlement fund

Legal accuracy check

Chris Schroeder, Esq.

Florida Bar #520381 · D.C. Bar

First published October 5, 2026 · Last checked October 5, 2026

How pages are checked

Who may be able to file

The settlement fund is closed. Its home page says the deadline “passed as of June 30, 2025” and that any new claim “must be rejected.” A person who did not file with the fund by that date cannot use it now.

That does not end every route. People who were held at the Youth Development Center in Manchester, now the Sununu Youth Services Center, have also sued the State in Superior Court, outside the fund. A Merrimack County Superior Court order of September 12, 2025 recites that roughly 1,500 individuals have brought claims against the State since 2018. Whether a new lawsuit is possible for a particular person depends on the deadline rules below, on New Hampshire’s cap on damages against the State, and on facts a lawyer has to check one by one.

Many people in these cases use initials or a pseudonym. One of the three named plaintiffs in the Foley case appears as Jane Doe #231. Our guide to filing anonymously explains how that works, and a separate page is written for family members.

Deadlines that apply

Two different clocks govern YDC claims.

The fund. RSA 21-M:11-a, VII(b) reads: “Claims may be filed beginning January 1, 2023. Claims shall not be accepted after June 30, 2025.” Some news coverage has given the deadline as June 30, 2024. The statute and the fund both say 2025.

Lawsuits. RSA 508:4-g provides that a person “alleging to have been subjected to any offense under RSA 632-A or an offense under RSA 639:2 may commence a personal action at any time.” RSA 632-A is New Hampshire’s sexual assault chapter. The current wording dates from a 2020 amendment that took effect September 18, 2020. Whether that change reaches a claim that had already expired before that date is a separate legal question, and this page does not answer it. Our statute of limitations reference covers the general rules state by state.

What the claims allege

The fund and the lawsuits concern abuse of young people held at the Youth Development Center. In the fund, each claim is reviewed by the administrator and then evaluated by the Attorney General’s office. Lawsuits are brought against the State of New Hampshire. Claims in both forums are allegations unless a court or the fund process has resolved them.

One case has been tried to a verdict. In May 2024 a jury in David Meehan’s suit found the State 100 percent liable and found its conduct “wanton, malicious, and oppressive,” according to InDepthNH and NHPR. That finding applies to Meehan’s case only. AP reported on September 15, 2026 that his suit was “the only one to go to trial so far.”

The State’s litigation position in that case was about the damages ceiling rather than the facts. At argument before the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Anthony Galdieri argued that Meehan’s abuse was a single incident, a security failure (NHPR, November 20, 2025). We found no public statement by the State denying the underlying abuse.

Settlement and compensation status

The legislature created the YDC Claims Administration and Settlement Fund in RSA 21-M:11-a, effective May 27, 2022. It opened to claims on January 1, 2023. Retired Judge Gerard J. Boyle now administers it; the Executive Council confirmed him on March 25, 2026, according to WMUR and the Concord Monitor. His predecessor, Justice Broderick, stopped serving under the 2025 amendments. The Superior Court’s order of September 12, 2025 records that Broderick’s term ended after June 30, 2025, with a transition to July 31, 2025.

Boyle’s report for May 2026, dated June 3, 2026, gives these figures as of May 31, 2026. The report calls the filed total “final as the claim filing period has concluded.”

The administrator projects a shortfall. Measured against all future installments, the report puts the fund’s remaining balance at negative $66,233,450.29. Through the current two-year budget period, it puts the balance at negative $12,489,164.34.

The process also changed partway through. The 2025 amendments, effective July 1, 2025, moved the administrator into the executive branch, appointed by the governor with Executive Council consent and removable “at any time, as the administrator serves at the pleasure of the governor.” They also gave both the Attorney General’s designee and the claimant 30 days to accept or decline an award.

The Meehan verdict and the per-incident cap

Meehan v. State began in Superior Court as No. 217-2020-CV-00026, before Judge Andrew Schulman. In May 2024 the jury awarded $18 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in enhanced compensatory damages, $38 million in total, according to InDepthNH and NHPR. On the verdict form the jury wrote “one” incident.

New Hampshire law caps damages against the State at $475,000 per incident, as coverage of the case describes it. In November 2024 Judge Schulman applied that cap and reduced the award to $475,000, according to InDepthNH. Coverage at the time reported that he did so reluctantly.

The appeal is New Hampshire Supreme Court No. 2024-0711. The court’s public docket card shows it was consolidated with No. 2025-0079 on February 13, 2025; that retired Superior Court Justice Gillian Abramson was specially assigned by order of January 9, 2025; and that the State moved on May 8, 2025 to stay further jury trials. The court heard argument on November 20, 2025, according to NHPR and WMUR. Coverage described three questions before it:

• whether the cap applies where a jury found the State’s conduct wanton, malicious or oppressive;
• whether the trial court may order a partial retrial on the number of incidents;
• how “incident” is defined under the State’s sovereign immunity statute.

Decided, as of October 5, 2026: the jury’s verdict and, in the trial court, the reduction to $475,000. Not decided: any of the three questions on appeal, so the reduction is not final. We found no Supreme Court opinion in Meehan, and AP reported on September 15, 2026 that the verdict “remains in dispute.” NHPR described the case as having “implications for hundreds of survivors with similar lawsuits.” How the court defines an incident will decide how the cap is counted for YDC plaintiffs who sued outside the fund.

The Foley challenge to the 2025 amendments

In June 2025 three fund claimants filed a putative class action in Merrimack County Superior Court: Andrew Foley, Ronald Miles and Jane Doe #231 v. State of New Hampshire, Governor Kelly Ayotte and Attorney General John Formella, No. 217-2025-CV-00480. They alleged breach of contract, impairment of contracts under Part I, Article 23 of the New Hampshire Constitution and Article I, section 10 of the U.S. Constitution, and a denial of equal protection. Their target was the two 2025 amendments: the governor’s power to appoint and remove the administrator, and the Attorney General’s power to reject the administrator’s awards.

The State prevailed in the trial court. Judge Daniel I. St. Hilaire denied a preliminary injunction on September 12, 2025, after evidentiary hearings on August 20 and August 27. Judge James W. Kennedy granted reconsideration on December 23, 2025 only to clarify the earlier order, and on January 6, 2026 granted the State’s motion to dismiss. InDepthNH summarized the ruling as holding that the changes “did not break any binding contract or agreement the state had with the survivors because there wasn’t one.”

The claimants filed a notice of appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court on January 28, 2026. They filed their brief around April 27, 2026, according to InDepthNH. We found no Supreme Court docket number, argument date or decision as of October 5, 2026.

Legislative funding

The fund’s money comes from appropriations, $185 million through SFY2026 according to the May 2026 report. In 2026 the administrator asked for more. According to NHPR, the Concord Monitor and the Union Leader, Boyle asked the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee for $55 million and the committee approved $20 million on June 19, 2026. The Executive Council approved the $20 million on July 8, 2026, according to InDepthNH. We could not read the committee’s own record of the vote. That money is reported separately here because the May report’s SFY2026 appropriation of $20 million predates it, and the two should not be added together until the fiscal year it was booked to is confirmed.

At the June 19 meeting, Rep. Peter Leishman, a member of the Fiscal Committee, said the fund could “bankrupt the state,” according to NHPR.

Criminal cases

Criminal charges are separate from the civil claims and are decided under a different standard. Our guide to civil and criminal cases explains the difference.

Jeffrey Buskey was tried in State v. Buskey on charges involving Meehan and three other former residents. On September 15, 2026 Judge Will Delker declared a mistrial, according to AP. Associate Attorney General Thomas Velardi said the State is “considering its options, including retrying the case.” Buskey has not been convicted and is presumed innocent.

How this compares with Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County juvenile facility settlement is the other large public-entity juvenile abuse resolution this site tracks, and it works differently. Los Angeles County resolved its claims in bulk: its Board of Supervisors approved aggregate settlements and committed to paying them over several fiscal years. New Hampshire built a claims process by statute. Each claim goes to an administrator, then to the Attorney General’s office for a position, and each award must be accepted by both sides. Payment depends on what the legislature appropriates, and settled claims are paid in installments that run through SFY2035. Survivors in New Hampshire who chose a lawsuit instead are bound by the per-incident cap now before the Supreme Court in Meehan.

Timeline

Update log

No dated updates are published for this page yet.

Questions we are asked most

Related states and institutions

The YDC is one of many state-run youth facilities facing abuse claims. Our overview of abuse in juvenile detention covers how these cases are brought against public agencies, and the institutions hub lists every institution type this site follows. Our tracker of juvenile facility lawsuits in other states compares New Hampshire with matters elsewhere. The case tracker records dated developments across all the litigation on this site, and reporting abuse explains how to make a report to the authorities, separate from any civil claim.