Trial of former YDC counselor in abuse of teenage boy begins Tuesday

MANCHESTER, NH – Opening statements are expected Tuesday morning in the criminal trial of a former state employee accused of abusing a teen being detained in the Youth Development Center (YDC).

Bradley Asbury, 70, of Dunbarton is accused of being an accomplice to aggravated felonious sexual assault.  According to the indictments, he is charged with holding down M.G., while two colleagues anally and orally raped the 14-year-old.  The assaults allegedly took place in 1997 in the East Cottage at  YDC on River Road, now known as the Sununu Youth Services Center.

On Monday, a Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District jury was being selected to determine Asbury’s guilt or innocence of the felony offenses. The trial is expected to last two to three days.

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 decades.

In April, the first civil trial brought by David 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, former YDC resident Michael Gilpatrick (M.G.)  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.”

AP also previously reported that Asbury had been fired in 1994, three years before he allegedly held down M.G. while two colleagues raped the teen, for allegations of physical and psychological abuse.

However, Asbury appealed to a state board and was reinstated in 1995.  He worked at YDC in Manchester until 2001 and then went to work for the State Employees Association, the union that help him regain his job.

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