By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
A single botched indictment against one of the men charged in the (YDC) Sununu Youth Services Center child physical and sex abuse scandal delayed the trial, but the state will not say why.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office isn’t saying that it is going back to a new grand jury to re-indict alleged YDC abuser James Woodlock, but that is the implication from Hillsborough County Superior Court — North Judge Will Delker’s comments during an emergency hearing held in the case last week.
“Aren’t you better off presenting this case to a grand jury in June and setting this case for a trial in September?” Delker said, according to the audio recording of the Friday hearing.
Jury selection for the upcoming trial was scheduled to start Monday, but now the trial is likely delayed until September. The official reason for the delay is a bit murky, with the Attorney General’s Office citing an assented motion filed Monday that leaves out key details. The state’s motion refers to the reasons discussed during the Friday hearing.
Delker ordered the emergency hearing on Friday after Woodlock’s attorney, Richard Guerriero filed a motion to dismiss all of the indictments. Guerriero’s motion cites the fact that one of the indictments against Woodlock for being an accomplice to sexual assault is not based on any evidence presented to the 2021 grand jury.
Woodlock was indicted on multiple counts of being an accomplice to sexual assault from that 2021 grand jury session. But the state dropped one of the charges this month when it turned out that the details of that supposed incident were never part of the evidence presented to the grand jury. Guerriero’s motion argues that phantom charge throws all of the grand jury’s work into question, and requires a deeper investigation into what went wrong.
“The fact that a baseless indictment has been dismissed here does not end the inquiry. The same grand jury which was either improperly instructed or which abdicated its responsibility returned the other indictments against the accused. Those remaining indictments must be dismissed,” Guerriero wrote.
InDepthNH.org was initially blocked from getting a copy of the Friday hearing audio when it was requested that day. The company that provides the court audio said the court said the hearing was under seal, but finally released it Monday.
In the hearing audio, Delker discusses the problem with the phantom indictment and says it is not enough to get all of the indictments dismissed, or to trigger a further investigation into the 2021 grand jury.
“I am not going to dismiss the indictments. I do think the fact that one indictment may be defective in some way does not lead to the conclusion that the grand jury was not properly fulfilling its role.
However Delker does suggest that it makes sense to delay the trial until September in order to give prosecutors time to go to the June grand jury. The New Hampshire Supreme Court has not weighed in on the problem of baseless indictments, meaning there is the possibility the whole case could be thrown out on appeal.
“Is that a risk worth taking when you can, relatively, easily correct this,” Delker asked Assistant Attorney General Audriana Mekula.
Mekula initially wanted to go forward with a trial on the remaining charges, but pulled back when Delker expressed concern about a possible appeal. She told Delker on Friday she would confer with the alleged victims in Woodlock’s case before she decided on delaying and going back to the June grand jury session. Mekula told Delker she would inform the court of her decision on Monday morning.
“I’d like time to consider, practically speaking, what to do with the indictments,” Mekula said.
On Monday, jury selection was cancelled along with the scheduled trial, which was set to begin with opening arguments on June 9. Instead, Delker will now hold an attorneys only hearing on June 9 to work out a possible new date for the trial, according to court records.
Michael Garrity, spokesman for the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, denied that the state will dismiss any of the charges and seek new indictments.
“Our prosecution is moving forward, and we have no intention of entering a nolle prosequi on the charges. The continuance is the result of careful consideration in light of the discussion at the court hearing on Friday and after thoughtful input from the victims,” Garrity said, while not answering questions about the details of Friday’s hearing.
Woodlock is one of 11 men charged in the YDC abuse scandal after former Attorney General Gordon MacDonald formed the YDC Task Force in 2019. More than 1,000 YDC survivors have come forward, and hundreds of YDC staffers have been named as alleged abusers. The Task Force, however, is no longer investigating alleged abusers, according to testimony in one of the civil cases associated with the scandal.
Charges against Frank Davis were dropped because he is not competent to stand trial and cannot be restored to competency, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Another criminal defendant in the case Gordon Thomas Searles, 68, died.
As the state prosecutes the former YDC staffers, it is also defending itself in court against the civil lawsuits brought by the survivors. Survivor David Meehan is the central victim in Woodlock’s criminal case and the only survivor to get a civil jury trial so far. He was awarded $38 million in damages last year, but has yet to see a penny. The state is challenging the damages award and arguing that Meehan is entitled to just $475,000.