2 weeks Ago
The Executive Council gave final approval to giving the Youth Development Center (YDC) Settlement Fund another $5 million so the program didn’t run out of money before the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Gov. Kelly Ayotte told reporters that she agreed with legislative leaders who have asked for an audit to ensure enough of the money is going to victims of alleged sexual and physical abuse at the Manchester youth detention facility.
“It is a fair question to ask how much compensation is going directly to victims or going to these third-party litigation funds that purchased the settlement in advance and then charge pretty high interest rates” to the victims awaiting an award for damages, Ayotte said. “We do want to make sure if somebody is harmed that the resources are going to be there for them.” The Executive Council unanimously approved the $5 million request a month after the Legislative Fiscal Committee had agreed to grant Fund Administrator John Broderick a third of the $15 million he had requested.
The Legislature created the fund in 2022 and gave it $100 million in federal grant money. Last year it gave the fund another $60 million and set an annual cap of spending no more than $75 million a year for such damage awards. Last week, the fiscal panel ordered a financial audit into the YDC fund upon the recommendation of Senate President Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry.
Broderick asked the Legislature for $150 million for the next two-year state budget. The House-approved $16.3 billion state budget plan sets aside only $10 million in each of the next two years.
Republican and Democratic members of the fiscal group have questioned some of the decisions Broderick made in spending the fund money. Jennifer Foley, general counsel for the settlement fund, said it has received 1,135 requests for damages that total more than $1 billion. Broderick and his staff have acted on just over 300 of these matters, leaving 808 still pending.
“The purpose of the settlement fund was to provide an alternative to litigation,” Attorney General John Formella said. The only trial that came down to a jury verdict involved former YDC resident David Meehan, who won a $38 million judgment. The judge agreed with Formella’s prosecutors, who argued Meehan was only entitled to $475,000 because the jury acted on only one complaint he had brought, and the state has a per-complaint cap on damages.
Meehan’s lawyers have appealed that ruling. “We think the Supreme Court is ultimately going to decide that,” Formella said. .
What’s Next : The Senate Finance Committee will recommend how much the settlement fund should get in its recommended two-year state budget. Prospects : The budget picture is too tight to think Broderick will get the $150 million he’s asked for; the only option that could get the fund this much money would be if House Republicans dropped their opposition to issuing a state-backed bond to reimburse victims via long-term borrowing. jphelps @unionleader.
com.
