Trial begins for 4th former Youth Development Center worker accused of sexual abuse

MANCHESTER, NH – The trial of former Youth Development Center employee Stephen Murphy, accused of anally raping a 14-year-old boy while a co-worker orally raped him and two others held him down, opened Wednesday in Hillsborough County Superior Court North.

Stephen Murphy, 58, of Danvers, Mass., is charged with raping the teen 26 years ago after the boy went AWOL on a furlough to see his family in May 1998. Murphy went on to work as a clubhouse attendant for the Boston Red Sox, who suspended him when the club learned of the allegations.

Murphy and Jeffrey Buskey, 55, of Dorchester, Mass., are accused of anally and orally raping Michael Gilpatrick, now 41, respectively, while supervisor Bradley Asbury, 70, of Dunbarton, and co-worker James Woodlock, 60, of Manchester, held the teen down on a staircase landing.

Asbury, who was the house leader of East Cottage where the alleged rape took place, was convicted inp November of two counts of being an accomplice to aggravated felonious sexual assault (rape) of Gilpatrick which prosecutors said took placed 26 years ago.

More than 30 supporters of Murphy attended the first day of the trial, filling nearly one side of the courtroom.  A handful of Gilpatrick’s supporters sat behind the prosecutors.

Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Audriana Mekula, in her brief opening statement, told the jury of 12 men and one woman (an alternate will be selected once the case is sent to deliberations) that the case was about the rape of Michael Gilpatrick, now 41.  Manchester InkLink normally does not identify victims of sexual abuse but Gilpatrick went public with his account.

Mekula said the case is not about revenge or money.  It is about Murphy raping a 14-year-old boy, while a co-worker forced his penis into the teen’s mouth and two other co-workers held him down.  She said Murphy and Buskey escorted Gilpatrick from his second-floor room in East Cottage down to Asbury’s first-floor office.   Standing in the doorway behind him, they swept his legs out from under him, sending him face first onto the floor.

All four YDC workers then carried the teen up the stairwell, banging his head against the wall and stairs before stopping on a landing where he was sexually assaulted, she said.  After, he was locked inside his bedroom.

Defense Attorney Charles J. Keefe told the jury that from May 27, 1998, when Gilpatrick was returned to the YDC after going AWOL on a furlough home, until May 31, 1998, the four men never worked at the same time, implying that Gilpatrick made up the story.

Keefe focused on what he says are inconsistencies in what Gilpatrick told state police investigators when interviewed in May 2020 and what today he says happened 26 years ago.  In 2020, Gilpatrick told investigators there were 2 to 3 kids doing clean up with him in the day room, while everyone else was in bed; that Murphy and Woodlock escorted him to Asbury’s office; that they beat him and he struggled.  Today, Keefe told the jurors, Gilpatrick says he was upstairs in his room, either at night or during the day; Murphy and Buskey escorted him to Asbury’s office; he said nothing about being beaten or struggling with the YDC employees.

Five years ago, Keefe told the jurors, he said nothing about hitting his head on the walls or stairs as YDC employees brought him up the stairwell; said nothing about losing consciousness, and didn’t say he struggled.  Today, however, he says that happened, said Keefe.  The alleged inconsistences were displayed on a large monitor for the jurors to read as Keefe spoke.

Gilpatrick, the father of three, was the second person, after David Meehan, to come forward about the mistreatment by staffers at YDC, located on River River but now known as the Sununu Youth Services Center, abusing children in their care.

Meehan was the lead plaintiff in what was initially filed as a class action lawsuit against the state.  When a court denied the class action, more than 1,000 people, including Gilpatrick, filed their own individual lawsuits.  Allegations of abuse span six decades.

Meehan’s civil case went to trial in April, resulting in a jury awarding him $38 million.   However, 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.

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.”

The trial continues on Thursday in Superior Court.  Gilpatrick once again will take the stand and testify to his alleged rape.

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