By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
MANCHESTER – One of the alleged sex offenders deemed to be among the worst at YDC in Manchester has been deemed incompetent to stand trial and the six sexual assault charges against him have been dropped.
Judge William Delker dismissed the charges on Tuesday and ruled that Frank Davis, 82, of Contoocook is not competent to stand trial and cannot be restored to competency, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
“The issue of competency is something the New Hampshire Department of Justice has been tracking in the case against Mr. Frank Davis since it was first raised by defense counsel in September of 2022.
“The Office of the Forensic Examiner (OFE) has now made a determination on the defendant’s competency to stand trial. Upon careful review the State has found no basis to challenge the OFE findings,” the Attorney General’s Office said in an email.
As required under New Hampshire law, a defendant cannot stand trial if he is incompetent.
The Attorney General’s Office continues to prepare prosecutions of the other 10 named YDC abuse defendants.
The first criminal case is scheduled for a jury trial in August. Davis was indicted for sexually assaulting boys at YDC between Dec. 12, 1996, and Jan. 7, 1997.
Documents related to Davis’ competency evaluation are under seal, according to a court spokesman.
David Meehan, 42, who said Davis was one of the abusers who harmed him at YDC when he was incarcerated there as a teen, was awarded $38 million Friday by jurors in Rockingham Superior Court in Brentwood.
The state said it will only pay Meehan $475,000, the cap allowed by law, and Meehan’s attorney has asked for an emergency hearing after two jurors said they were confused by the juror form and intended to award Meehan the full $38 million.
Meehan claims he was raped and beaten hundreds of times and locked in solitary confinement while a teenager at YDC, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center.
One of Meehan’s attorneys in the civil lawsuit, Mark Knights of the firm Nixon Peabody, said:
“Frank Davis victimized dozens of children during his years at YDC. He was a sick, depraved man whose crimes were enabled by a state government that allowed him to prey on kids without fear of consequence.
“While it’s discouraging that the criminal justice system isn’t able to hold him accountable anymore, if there’s a hell, I’m sure they’re holding a spot for him,” Knights said Tuesday.
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Davis allegedly raped dozens of children over two decades while he was a state employee at YDC.
The Attorney General’s Office began investigating the alleged abuses at YDC in 2019, and formed a special task force in 2020 to lead the investigation and prosecutions. But since then only Davis and 10 other former state employees were indicted, although about 1,300 survivors have come forward to file civil lawsuits against the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The Attorney General’s Office also represented DHHS in Meehan’s civil lawsuit.