By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Lawmakers trying to make sense of the staggering price tag to settle decades of horrific child abuse perpetrated by state employees got details they asked for on the Youth Development Center Claims Administration and Settlement Fund.
The Office of the Legislative Budget Assistant handed in this week its initial review of the settlement fund at the request of the legislature’s Fiscal Committee. The review shows the fund administration has been sticking to the law and focused its expenses on paying victims.
According to the review, the fund paid more than $123 million to 296 survivors out of the total $160 million appropriated. The review also confirms more than 800 open claims still pending representing more than $1.1 billion in potential settlement payments.
Senate President Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, pushed for the review last month in response to fund Administrator John Broderick’s request for more money. Carson said she did not know where the millions of taxpayer funds were going, despite Broderick’s quarterly reports and testimony detailing just that.
“I think we need a lot more detail. These are tax dollars, and the public has the right to know how these tax dollars are being spent. If anyone were to ask me, I could not answer the question,” Carson said during a committee hearing last month.
Broderick’s become a scapegoat for the spending in the legislature, though the retired Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court has been sticking to the 2022 law that created the fund, according to the review.
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella publicly criticized Broderick earlier this year for paying the attorneys representing the victims upfront instead of staggering the payments over two to three years. But the review confirms Broderick has been following the rules set by the legislature. The YDCCA law does not allow Broderick to automatically pay attorney fees over time. However, many of the law firms have entered agreements with the YDCCA to accept payments over time, the review states.
Victims who submit claims to the YDCCA go through a thorough process that includes in-person testimony and a review of evidence conducted by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. Once a claim is approved for settlement, the amount is capped at $2.5 million per victim depending on the nature of abuse. The average payment so far is $533,000 per victim, and that rate might be the best deal the state can get.
More than 1,000 survivors filed civil lawsuits against the state claiming they were physically and sexually abused as children while being held in facilities like the Sununu Youth Service Center, formerly called YDC.
The first case to go to trial, brought by survivor David Meehan, showed state officials knew about the abuse for years and did not stop the alleged abusers. Meehan was awarded $38 million by the jury, but that award is tied up in litigation with Formella arguing the state should only pay $475,000 to Meehan.
In the meantime, Formella’s office recently reached settlement agreements with survivors Natasha Maunsell for $4.5 million, and Michael Gilpatrick for $10 million.
The settlement fund is an attempt by the state to close out its shameful past and save money at the same time. Many of the victims who apply to the fund are represented by attorneys who get a cut of the awards.
Under the law creating the fund, lawyers can get up to 33 percent of the settlement award as determined by the fund administrator. The review shows the average fee allowed to attorneys from fund settlements and settlements with the Attorney General’s Office is 30.8 percent, lower than the maximum set by the law.
The legislature now needs to decide if it will continue funding settlement agreements which average $533,000 per victim, or risk higher payouts in court of potential $5 million, $10 million, or more per victim. The $123 million Broderick has so far approved for 296 victims is half the amount those victims initially requested in their applications.