David Meehan calls out state for 'same excuse' in YDC trial
Apr. 22—A judge had to temper David Meehan Monday afternoon during testimony about the state's approach to defending against a lawsuit he filed on alleged abuse at the state's Youth Development Center in the 1990s.
In the suit, Meehan is seeking monetary damages for the years of abuse he says he suffered at the state run correctional facility for juveniles in Manchester.
Monday marked Meehan's fourth day on the stand.
Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman specifically called Meehan out for cursing while on the stand.
"I am angry," Meehan muttered to himself. "And I am not allowed to be angry, says who?"
Meehan's outburst came after spending most of the day being cross-examined by Martha Gaythwaite, an attorney representing the Department of Health and Human Services.
Meehan spoke over questioning by his lawyer Rus Rilee at one point.
"The state is using the same excuse that my parents were using then and still are and still will," he said. "I am fighting against the same thing. Because why, I'm the bad guy. I was a bad kid, so I deserved it. Or I was a bad kid so that proves that I'm a bad man now? And I f---ing made it up. That hurts."
On Friday and Monday, Gaythwaite asked questions geared toward discrediting Meehan's claims during cross-examination by mentioning interactions with police, psychotic breakdowns and hospital stays.
She pointed to documents showing allegations of abuse by his parents and a teacher being unfounded.
"You were an angry and violent young man, weren't you?" Gaythwaite said Friday.
"I was not," Meehan responded.
Last week, Meehan testified his mother abused him and put out cigarettes on his face. He testified that he ran away from home multiple times and even lived in a burnt-out house to get away from the abuse.
Gaythwaite read from a report of an attempted escape from a detention facility in Concord where a female staffer was held hostage before he arrived at YDC. Meehan was 14 years old at the time.
While defending the state against the lawsuit, the Attorney General's Office also is responsible for prosecuting at least 10 former workers at the YDC, and one from a pre-trial facility in Concord, who have been criminally charged with sexual assault or acting as accomplices in attacks on more than a dozen teenagers from 1994 to 2007.
On Monday, Meehan testified many of the documents presented in court by Gaythwaite had been falsified to protect those who abused him.
Gaythwaite pointed out a time Meehan was admitted into a hospital after a "standoff with police" involving a SWAT team in 2015.
"It wasn't a standoff with police," Meehan said. "It was a wellness check blown out of proportion."
Meehan testified about being hospitalized in Portsmouth and later Methuen, Mass., after trying to figure out who was "truly responsible" for the abuse in 2020.
"I can see why my wife and kids were scared," he said. "I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't eating. I wasn't showering. I was constantly trying to figure out information."
Gaythwaite said Meehan called his wife "Satan" and claimed to be a "biblical figure" and "related to royalty" before being involuntarily admitted to the hospital.
A report by Dr. Harrison Pope, a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and a Harvard University professor, said Meehan likely has bipolar disorder and was misdiagnosed and treated for years, Gaythwaite said.
Meehan testified he had a one-time evaluation with Pope and that he hadn't read the full report.
Pope is scheduled to take the stand as a witness in the trial.
Meehan completed his time on the stand Monday afternoon.
