YDC victim battles former lawyer over fees
Jun. 12—CONCORD — The first victim of sexual and physical abuse at the former Youth Development Center in Manchester to be awarded damages is fighting his former lawyers in court over legal fees from the $1.5 million settlement.
The former YDC resident, identified in court documents as John Doe #95, last month received a state administrator's award for the maximum damages allowed. His former lawyers, Rus Rilee and David Vicinanzo, have sought to secure 40% of that judgment for their representation. The victim recently filed a motion asking a judge to reject that request.
The victim agreed in June 2021 for Rilee and Vicinanzo to represent him, and they filed a suit against the state on his behalf in January 2022. Last June, the victim ended that relationship, signing up with Concord lawyer and former state Supreme Court Justice Chuck Douglas.
As soon as that happened, Rilee and Vicinanzo filed a lien to receive legal fees in the event the victim received any compensation.
The victim became the first to reach a settlement on his case with Administrator John Broderick, former chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
In the filing that Douglas prepared for the client, the victim said Rilee and Vicinanzo don't deserve any money.
"They refused to help me accomplish my goals for my case, because they told me that my goals would disrupt their financial interests and the financial interests of their other clients," he wrote.
Rilee and Vicinanzo have more than 1,100 clients, who make up more than 90% of those who have brought charges against the state for their treatment while at YDC or its successor facility, the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester.
"It is wrong for Rilee & Associates and Nixon Peabody (Vicinanzo's firm) to seek any money from the settlement that Douglas, Leonard & Garvey obtained for me, after Rilee & Associates and Nixon Peabody refused to pursue that settlement on my behalf," the victim said.
Lawyers claim role in fund
Rilee and Vicinanzo said in a statement that their advocacy helped convince the Legislature and Gov. Chris Sununu to support setting up a $100 million fund to compensate victims.
"Without our tenacity in fighting the state relentlessly on behalf of their abused clients, there would be no settlement fund which, low ball and victim-unfriendly as it is, only exists because Rilee and Nixon Peabody forced the state to 'do something,'" they wrote.
"No one else was willing or fearless enough to try. It was only after we forced the legislation by filing 450 lawsuits that attorney Douglas started trolling for clients, saying he would not fight the state but just walk them into the state's victim-unfriendly process. Without our efforts, there would be no process at all, and Douglas would have no clients to collect an easy, no-risk fee from."
Rilee and Vicinanzo have refused to participate in the state-created victim settlement system, charging its cap on damages was too low.
According to the victim, Rilee feared that dropping the court case could lead to a lowball offer from the state that could jeopardize how much the lawyers could receive for other clients.
Douglas' lawsuit quotes Rilee as saying: "What do you want (me) to do? Call the AG (attorney general) and get you a couple hundred bucks so you can shut up about the money and then f--- up my millions for all my other clients?"
According to the victim's lawsuit, Douglas is to get one-third of the damages award in legal fees.
