Trial starts for New Hampshire youth center worker accused of holding down boy while he was raped

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The trial began Tuesday for a man accused of holding down a teenage boy so colleagues could rape him at a New Hampshire youth center in the 1990s, with prosecutors saying a brutal crime took place and the defense saying that it never happened and that the accuser was motivated by money.

It’s the second criminal trial to stem from a broad 2019 investigation into historic abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Bradley Asbury, now age 70, is among nine men who worked at the Manchester center or an associated facility in Concord who are facing criminal charges.

Asbury and a colleague are accused of restraining the boy in the dormitory where Asbury served as house leader in 1997 while a third staffer raped him and a fourth forced him to perform a sex act. The boy was 14 at the time.

In opening statements, prosecutor Audriana Mekula said the teen, who was already in trouble and on room confinement, made a smart-aleck comment to Asbury and was then dropped onto the floor from behind, picked up by his arms and legs, and dragged onto a staircase, where he was raped.

Defense lawyer David Rothstein said the complainant had gone to police only in 2020, when he was already “deep into the business” of suing the state and had changed crucial parts of his testimony.

“There was no gang rape on the staircase at East Cottage,” Rothstein said. “Brad Asbury is not guilty of these charges.”

Asbury had been fired from the Concord facility three years before over allegations of physical and psychological abuse. But he was later rehired and transferred to Manchester, where he worked until 2001.

Asbury is charged with two counts of being an accomplice to aggravated sexual assault. If found guilty, he faces a maximum prison term of 20 years on each count.

An earlier case against Victor Malavet ended in a mistrial in September after jurors deadlocked on whether he raped a girl at the Concord facility. A new trial in that case has yet to be scheduled.

The investigation has also led to extensive civil litigation. More than 1,100 former residents have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades. In the only civil case to go to trial so far, a jury awarded David Meehan $38 million in May for abuse he says he suffered in the 1990s, though that verdict remains in dispute as the state seeks to reduce it to $475,000.

The Meehan civil trial provided a preview for the current case. Among those testifying was Asbury’s accuser, Michael Gilpatrick, who testified that Asbury and three other staffers were known by teens in the dormitory as “the hit squad.”

“The four of them used to roll together, and they would go to different cottages and beat kids,” he said. “They would literally come over and just go door to door and beat every single one of us, down the line.”

The Associated Press generally does not identify those who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly, as Meehan and Gilpatrick have done.

Gilpatrick, who spent three years at the Manchester center in the 1990s, testified that he ended up there after running away from multiple group homes, committing a burglary and stealing food to survive on the streets.

He said the sexual assault involving Asbury happened after he ran away while on a furlough. He had already spent several days locked in his empty room wearing only his underwear when the workers brought him to the house leader’s office and then to a staircase, he testified.

He said the assault led to an out-of-body experience.

“It felt like I hovered over and watched it,” Gilpatrick said. “My body just went blank.”

Gilpatrick said Asbury was a bad man.

“Not only did he have power over all the kids, he had power over the staff as well.”

In 2000, during a state investigation into physical abuse and neglect at the youth center, Asbury denied there was a problem.

“That stuff does not take place. It’s not tolerated,” Asbury told The Union Leader. “We don’t have time to abuse them.”

The trial highlights the strange dynamic of the state simultaneously defending itself against civil suits relating to the youth center while also prosecuting criminal cases.

During the first civil case to go to trial, the state portrayed Asbury as a dedicated worker who won accolades for organizing volunteer work for the teenagers. In the current case, the state intends to portray Asbury in a much darker light.

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