CONCORD – Gov. Kelly Ayotte issued a news release Tuesday saying YDC Settlement Fund Administrator John T. Broderick, Jr. has resigned from his post, but the former state Supreme Court chief justice explained that is simply not true.

“I didn’t resign,” Broderick said in an interview with InDepthNH.org Tuesday evening. “They took my job away. I can’t resign from a job I don’t have.”

Broderick took on the fund administrator role in October 2022 when the legislature created the settlement fund to allow adults who were sexually and physically assaulted as children in the state juvenile detention system by state employees to be compensated to avoid the more costly route of filing a lawsuit in Superior Court.

Broderick blamed the new law that removes the independence of the administrator’s position, one that was originally up to the state Supreme Court to appoint, for eliminating his position.

Instead the governor now has the power to appoint the fund administrator and the attorney general has final say over any settlement with victims who had been incarcerated at the Youth Development Center, which is now called the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester.

“In what world does the defendant get to go in before the trial and say, ‘I would like to pick the judge. I can replace the judge. We can overrule the jury.’ We would laugh at that. It would be funny except we are not talking about children who were sent to bed without TV. They were sexually and physically abused and this went on 50 years,” Broderick said.

The Attorney General was previously criticized for representing the state in civil lawsuits against the abuse victims and in the criminal bureau prosecuting the former state employees accused of the abuse.

Ayotte’s news release Tuesday said: “Today, Governor Kelly Ayotte released the following statement on the resignation of YDC Settlement Fund Administrator John Broderick:

“Justice Broderick has had a distinguished career in public service at the New Hampshire Supreme Court and the YDC Settlement Fund, and he is a tireless advocate for mental health awareness. I thank him for his service to our state.”

Attorney General John Formella’s spokesman released a statement from the Department of Justice saying: “We appreciate Justice Broderick’s service and acknowledge the Legislature’s efforts to enhance oversight and accountability in the YDC settlement process. The New Hampshire Department of Justice remains committed to a fair, trauma-informed system that respects claimants and responsibly manages public resources.”

Broderick painted a very different picture of why he’s leaving a post that he was proud of, and is continuing to finish up even though his job was technically ended by the new law that went into effect July 1.

Broderick didn’t criticize Ayotte or Formella directly, but said he doesn’t understand the decision to change the law when he believes it will likely be more costly, especially if the motive for lawmakers was to save money. And he doesn’t see how it can possibly be fair, trauma-informed and respectful for the victims, many of whom continue to suffer years later as a result of the abuse they suffered as children at the hands of state employees.

“Between the attorney general’s and our hearings, we resolved 380 claims averaging about $545,000 per claim,” Broderick said. By comparison, “the attorney general settled two cases outside the fund for a total of $14.5 million and one jury awarded the victim $38 million.”

Broderick also sent a letter Monday to Formella and Christopher M. Keating, Interim Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts saying he would be leaving the YDC Claims Administration and Settlement Fund by July 31.

“My job as Administrator with independent authority to decide claims was taken from me, without cause, by statutory amendment on July 1, 2025,” Broderick wrote.

He said he would stay on to finish his decisions from the June resolution hearings and to work on his last Quarterly Report.

“If the most recent amendments to the claims statute are found by the Superior Court to be unlawful, I would welcome the opportunity to be restored to my former position,” he wrote. “While the Attorney General advised that I could stay on temporarily for several weeks in the new and significantly different Administrator role until the Governor replaced me in August, I declined because the new claims system is not ‘neutral and independent.’

“Because the Attorney General’s Office will be allowed to veto any award from the Administrator, even if a claimant were willing to accept it, that will never be perceived as fair, neutral, and even-handed nor will it be trauma-informed,” Broderick wrote.

“I leave my position with a deep gratitude to the New Hampshire Supreme Court for giving me the opportunity to listen to and resolve claims brought by ‘long-ago kids’ who were sexually and/or physically abused while in state custody. It was the hardest job I have ever had but, in many ways, the most important,” he wrote.

 Broderick said he was proud of the work he and his staff accomplished, but sad, too.

“I was not allowed to finish the work my staff and I began and wanted to see to completion.

“I just want to be clear I never resigned,” Broderick said.