State, defense rests in YDC abuse case; jury deliberations resume Monday

MANCHESTER, NH — A Hillsborough County Superior Court North jury deliberated for about five hours Friday without reaching a verdict in the case of Bradley Asbury, the former Youth Development Center supervisor accused of holding down a 14-year-old teen as two staffers raped him at the facility 26 years ago.

Defense and prosecuting attorneys each gave a 45-minute closing argument before Judge N. William Delker instructed the jury on the law.  They began deliberations shortly after 11 a.m. and left the courthouse at 4 p.m. Deliberations will resume Monday at 9 a.m.

Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Adam Woods told the jury Asbury, the former Youth Development Center house leader, was the man in charge of East Cottage and the muscle that allowed two of his “cohorts” in 1998 to rape a scrawny Michael Gilpatrick in a YDC stairwell.  He said that was when Gilpatrick’s life shattered. While his memory of events wasn’t crystal clear, Woods said the rape “was seared in his memory.”

Defense Attorney David Rothstein, in his closing argument, said his client is falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit and “that was virtually impossible to occur.”  East Cottage, where the alleged attack occurred, had an open concept design on the first floor and an open stairwell.  Sound carried and echoed throughout the cottage, he said.  Yet, no one heard or saw the alleged attack or reported it, including Gilpatrick, until he reported it to state investigators in 2020.

Rothstein told the jurors Gilpatrick lives in an imaginary world where he “created his own reality” holding YDC responsible for anything that happened to him in his life.

The defense attorney maintained, as he did in his opening, that money is the motivator behind Gilpatrick’s accusations.  Gilpatrick received $146,000 from Universal Funds, in anticipation of a payout from his civil suit against the State of New Hampshire.  He was the second person, after David Meehan, to come forward about alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse at YDC which Gilpatrick called “juvenile jail.”  It has resulted in more than 1,000 lawsuits against the state and involves abuse allegations spanning six decades.

Rothstein maintains the attack never happened and that Gilpatrick’s goal is a big payout. “Money is a powerful motivator,” he said.

Asbury, 70, of Dunbarton, along with staffer James Woodlock, 60, of Manchester, is accused of holding down 14-year-old Gilpatrick on the staircase while two other staffers,  Jeffrey Buskey, 55, of Dorchester, Mass. and Stephen Murphy, 58, of Danvers, Mass., allegedly raped him. The allege attack took place days after Gilpatrick was returned by police to YDC on May 27, 1998, after going AWOL from a furlough to see his family.

Asbury is on trial on two counts of being an accomplice to aggravated felonious sexual assault.

The cottages at the site, located on River Road and now known as the Sununu Youth Services Center, were torn down years ago so the jury did not have the opportunity to see the facility.

Rothstein told the jurors the attack couldn’t have happened because Buskey wasn’t working the same shift as the other three staffers, including Asbury.

Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Adam Woods, in his closing, rebutted that.  He told jurors YDC’s daily logs and staffers’ timecards showed that all four men worked shifts that overlapped in that time frame.

A log, he said, also indicated that the boys went to bed at 7 p.m. on June 3, 1998.  Normally, the logs would indicate three different times when groups of boys, ranked at levels based on their behavior, would be locked in their rooms with the latest about 9 p.m.  But that night, the log listed only the 7 p.m. bed time for all the youths.

Mike, as he referred to Gilpatrick, was at the mercy of adults before he was placed in YDC for three years, Woods said.  They should have given him the love, guidance and support a child needs, but those adults failed him, the prosecutor told the jury.  His troubled childhood resulted in him being put in residential placements, beginning at the age of 8, and the New Hampshire State Hospital as a child.  Ultimately, he ended up at YDC.

“With Brady Asbury in charge, Mike had no chance.  He had no chance with James Woodlock, Stephen Murphy or Jeffrey Buskey,” Woods said.

Going AWOL resulted in an automatic 10-day room confinement, Gilpatrick and other former YDC staffers testified, which is what happened to the teen.  He was given a furlough in May 1998, to see his family, but when he didn’t return on time, police picked him up and brought him back to YDC on May 27, 1998.

Days after Gilpatrick’s return, Murphy and Buskey took him from his room for what the teen thought was to take a shower.  He went to his cubby where he disrobed down to his underwear and T-shirt.  But then, the two staffers took him to Asbury’s office.

As Woods made his argument, the YDC intake photo of a 14-year-old Gilpatrick was displayed behind him on a large computer screen.

Asbury and Gilpatrick exchanged words in his office that night, Woods said.  For emphasis, Woods slammed his hand down on a podium producing a sound so loud it jolted spectators, and then he said Murphy and Buskey kicked Gilpatrick’s legs out from under him and the boy smashed his face onto the floor.

Then they beat him, “four men, not boys,” Woods said pointing out Asbury was 44 at the time.  All four carried him up the stairwell, banging his head against the steps and the wall before stopping at a landing leading up to a second stairwell.

Asbury held his arm behind his back, with Woodlock holding the other, as Buskey and Murphy “violated him mercilessly,” Woods said.

Woods said a prone and helpless Gilpatrick was on the stairs, where Buskey sat, while Asbury and Woodlock held him down by his arms.  Murphy pulled down his underwear and put his penis in Mike’s anus, the prosecutor said.  Buskey put his penis in Gilpatrick’s mouth, trying to get him to suck it.

“But Mike couldn’t because of what Murphy was doing,” Woods said.  Murphy and Buskey, he said, were aided in their rape of Mike by Asbury.

Gilpatrick didn’t recall the men saying anything during the assault and he couldn’t yell because Buskey’s penis was in his mouth, the prosecutor said.

After, Gilpatrick was carried up to his room and his mattress, blanket, torn T-shirt and other items were taken.  He was left naked locked in his room. Later, the items were returned and he received a new pair of underwear.

Woods said Gilpatrick’s memory isn’t crystal clear about what happened before or after his rape.  But, he said, the trauma of it is “seared into his memory.”

“Brad Asbury wanted to wield his power in East Cottage,” the prosecutor said.  “It was his house and he dealt out the punishment he thought Mike deserved.”

Gilpatrick, now 41, the father of three children and living in Nashua, was emotional at times when he testified about what happened to him. Cross examination, which lasted for hours over two days, was particularly contentious and resulted in Gilpatrick walking off the stand at one point.

It was Wednesday afternoon when Rothstein and Gilpatrick had a heated exchange that ended with Gilpatrick calling the defense attorney a “sick man.”

For hours, Rothstein questioned him about his treatment as a child at mental health facilities, including the New Hampshire State Hospital, and his troubled childhood.  He also questioned him about a $146,000 loan he obtained from a company, based on an expected payment from his civil lawsuit against the state.  Gilpatrick conceded he did not have to repay the money but said he told National Funds he would pay back the money no matter the outcome.

After hours of questioning concerning his haziness about dates and events before and after his placement in YDC, Gilpatrick had enough.

“That’s got nothing to do with four men raping me on a stairwell, you can’t change that no matter what you try to make people think I forgot,” Gilpatrick said. “Your client held me down while two other men raped me.”

Prosecutors did not object as Rothstein told  Gilpatrick, “Go ahead and say it again, in case they didn’t hear it. Say it again.”

“He held me down and raped me,” Gilpatrick said.

“Say it again,” Rothstein said.

“You want me to keep saying it? You’re a sick man,” Gilpatrick said, before asking the judge for a break and stepping down from the stand.

In his closing argument, Rothstein apologized to the jury if he had offended anyone.  He began his statement with a quote form Hamlet.  “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”  He contended that Gilpatrick’s go-to answer, when confronted with inconsistent statements, is to say, “They raped me.  They raped me.”

News media normally do not identify individuals named in sexual assault cases.  However, Gilpatrick went public with his story, becoming the second former YDC resident to do so, after David Meehan.

He testified at the civil trial brought by Meehan against the state of New Hampshire concerning the alleged decades-long sexual and physical abuse of youths at YDC.   Gilpatrick is among the more than 1,000 people who are suing the state over their treatment at state operated facilities.

The defense maintains Gilpatrick made up the story after speaking with Meehan.

For years, Gilpatrick testified he never told anyone about what happened.  “How do you tell somebody?  He was in charge.  These are the people who are in charge. They are the people you were supposed to feel safe around,” he said.

The first person he told, he said, was his wife although he did not go into details.  He also told his step-brother, who has since died.

He said five to six years ago, an investigator with Attorney Rus Rilee’s office contacted him.  Rilee is one of the attorneys representing more than 1,000 plaintiffs in lawsuits against the state concerning abuse they allegedly suffered at YDC and other state-run or contracted facilities.

That was when he talked to his wife about what happened, but not as detailed as his testimony on Tuesday.  Asked why by the prosecutor, he said, “It’s hard to talk about it.”

He said money is not the motivating factor in him making the allegations, accountability is.  He said he would give up his civil suit in a second to see Asbury “go away.”

Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Audrianna Mekula also questioned Gilpatrick about the $146,000 he and his wife obtained from Universal Funds.  He said during Covid, his wife worked for a plastic surgery office which was one of the first places to shut down.  He was laid off from his construction job.  His wife mentioned it to Attorney Rilee who put them in contact with Universal Funds.

He conceded, under Rothstein’s questioning, that he did not have to repay it if he lost his civil suit but said he told Universal Funds he would repay it.

It’s been more than three years since the state charged 10 former employees at the YDC and one at the Youth Detention Services Unit (YDSU) in Concord with sexually and/or physically abusing teens.

The first to be criminally tried was Victor Malavat, 62, of Gilford, accused of repeatedly raping teenager Natasha Maunsell at the YDSU, where children were held while waiting for a court decision.

His case, tried in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, ended in a mistrial in September.

Another defendant Gordon Thomas Searles, 68, of Manchester, died in July.  Charges against Frank Davis, 82, of Contoocook were dismissed after a judge found he was incompetent to stand trial.

It leaves nine defendants to face trial, including Asbury.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s investigation resulted in more than 1,000 allegations and as many people filing civil suits against the state alleging they were abused at state-run facilities over six decades.

In April, the first civil trial brought by Meehan resulted in a jury awarding him $38 million. However, last week Judge Andrew Schulman issued a preliminary order saying the payout should only be $475,000, citing state law limiting the amount of damages to that amount for a single incident.

Schulman said he “reluctantly granted” the state’s motion in which it cited the state cap of $475,000.  The jurors awarded Meehan $38 million but marked only one incident of abuse on the jury verdict form.

During Meehan’s civil trial, Gilpatrick testified about four employees he and other teens called “the hit squad.”  According to the Associated Press, Gilpatrick referred to Asbury, an alleged member of the squad, as a “very bad man.  Not only did he have power over all the kids, he had power over the staff as well.”

Under direct examination by Mekula, Gilpatrick also testified he referred to Asbury as “Hitler” to Rothstein’s objection.

“I’m just being honest,” Gilpatrick said.  “That’s what we referred to him as.”