There Are Nearly 1,200 Lawsuits Alleging Abuse at Sununu Youth Services Center; Now, a Trial Has Begun

In the trial's opening statements, David Meehan’s lawyer claimed Meehan was treated like a "child sex slave" at the center, which is still in operation

A civil complaint going to trial this week alleges that for decades children at a federally funded New Hampshire youth detention center were “sporting black eyes, swollen faces and bleeding genitals.”

And it’s not the only such allegation.

Dozens of former state workers are accused in nearly 1,200 lawsuits alleging six decades of abuse at the Manchester, N.H., facility, the Associated Press reports.

The first trial against Sununu Youth Services Center, which still operates, started Tuesday, April 9.

David Meehan, now an adult, says that when he was 15, he was raped by an employee at the facility, then known as Youth Development Center, per the civil complaint obtained by PEOPLE.

In opening statements, one of his lawyers, David Vicinanzo, said per the AP that Meehan "was reduced to the status of a child sex slave and a punching bag," at the facility.

Rus Riley, also of his legal team, tells PEOPLE that the trial is "finally giving David a voice and the opportunity for justice that he has for so long been denied."

Meehan claims the juvenile detention center “caused or contributed to decades of physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental/emotional abuse, solitary confinement and deprivation of education of hundreds of children,” per the complaint.

Meehan further alleges they “not only conspired to perpetrate horrific acts of abuse on these children who were in their care, custody and control, but they then conspired to conceal these acts.”

Originally submitted as a class action lawsuit in 2020, it was eventually split into individual cases, per the case docket reviewed by PEOPLE.

As a state-run facility, the juvenile detention center, Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Children Youth and Families and other such entities are defended by the Department of Justice.

PEOPLE reached out to Assistant Attorney General Brandon Chase for comment, but his office did not immediately respond.

In defense of the allegations, Attorney General John M. Formella wrote in a 2021 court filing that Meehan’s claims were “barred by governmental immunity.”

Per the complaint, Meehan, who entered the facility in October 1995, says he was raped for the first time more than a year later.

Meehan claims in the complaint that during a so-called “Out of Community” solitary confinement between December 1996 and January 1997, one of the facility workers “entered his room and told David that he was there to perform a contraband search.”

The employee allegedly instructed Meehan to undress for what the teenager believed to be a routine strip search.

He “put a glove on his hand, picked up a tube of lubricant and told David to turn around.”

Meehan claims that when he was raped by a state employee, another employee stood “at the door to the room, apparently standing guard and preventing the door from closing and automatically locking,” according to the complaint.

Meehan alleges he contracted gonorrhea from the encounter and was treated at the facility. And over his multi-year incarceration, he alleges the rapes continued.

He says he was also “forced” to watch one of his female friends be sexually assaulted by one of the employees.

By January 1998, Meehan, per the complaint: “began to experience almost constant physical, sexual and emotional abuse,” with rapes occurring “on an almost daily basis,” and “sometimes multiple times in one day.” Often, he says he was beaten during the raping.

He was also routinely kept in solitary confinement and not permitted to attend school or receive an alternative education, per the complaint.

In 1999, Meehan turned 18 and was released from the facility.

In the complaint, Meehan said he came forward “to hold the State of New Hampshire and others responsible for the lives they forever destroyed and to bring about systemic change so that this can never happen again to another child in New Hampshire.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

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