YDC

State Alerts YDC Abuse Victims About Controversial Settlement Process

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JEFFREY HASTINGS photo

YDC, which is now called the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. One of the cottages is non-secured and used by the Division for Children, Youth and Families for housing until an appropriate placement can be found.

By Staff report

Attorney General John Formella has given notice to former residents of the state’s YDC/SYSC and similar facilities that they may be entitled to file a claim with the state’s new $100 million-dollar YDC Settlement Fund, but the attorney representing about 900 victims said the program is destined to fail.

The state settlement fund is under the oversight of independent administrator John Broderick, Jr., a former state Supreme Court chief justice.

“Today we are pleased to see Administrator Broderick sending out notice to former residents of the YDC/SYSC and similar facilities alerting them that they may be entitled to file a claim,” Formella said in a news release.

The state has created a fund to compensate former residents of YDC and similar facilities who were sexually or physically abused by or because of a staff member of the facility. Victims of sexual abuse may receive up to $1,500,000. Victims of physical abuse may receive up to $150,000: www.YDCclaims.nh.gov, the release said.

 David Vicinanzo, former First Assistant US Attorney who is now with Nixon Peabody representing nearly 900 victims with Attorney Rus Rilee, said the state process was created to favor only the state.

He said more information about victims filing a lawsuit in court instead of the state process can call the Sununu Center/YDC Child Victims Group at Nixon Peabody in Manchester at 603-628-4000.

“We did not agree to the terms, values or conditions, which set the dollar numbers at a mere fraction of the national averages for abuse cases like this, and require the victims to give up their right to sue in order to get in front of the administrator, before  they ever learn whether they will receive an award or what it might be,” Vicinanzo said.

“Who wants to surrender their only leverage on a mere hope they might get some fraction of what they’re owed, or nothing? No rational person does, especially after the state has already abused the trust of victims by abusing them as children and covering up all these years.

“No process designed like this to favor only one side – the State – has ever succeeded, and this one won’t either. We look to the courts – and to the public which is disgusted by the State’s outrageous abuse – for long-denied justice,” Vicinanzo said.

According to Formella, the covered facilities are: New Hampshire’s Youth Development Center (a/k/a the Sununu Youth Services Center), the State Industrial School, the Philbrook School, the Tobey Special Education School, the Youth Services Center, and any other facility that housed adjudicated delinquent or pre-adjudication detained youth.

Claims through the state can be filed beginning Jan. 1, 2023. All claims must be postmarked or received no later than midnight on December 31, 2024. Former residents are not required to use the claims process and may choose to file a claim in a judicial or other forum, Formella said.

More information and forms to file under the state process can be obtained by contacting the Administrator’s office at:

John T. Broderick, Jr., Administrator, NH YDC Claims Office,

PO Box 1930, Concord, NH 03302-1930. Fax: 603-798-3420, Telephone: 603-415-2136,Website: www.YDCclaims.nh.gov

The administrator’s staff is also authorized to accept collect calls from correctional facilities.

Any person with information regarding criminal conduct at the YDC is urged to contact the N.H. Attorney General’s YDC Task Force hotline at 603-271-4000.

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