NH judge deciding whether to dismiss youth sex abuse case

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A New Hampshire judge is deciding whether to dismiss a lawsuit alleging decades of abuse at the state’s youth detention center.

David Meehan sued the Sununu Youth Services Center last year alleging that he endured near-daily beatings and rapes at the Manchester facility in the late 1990s.

More than 250 plaintiffs have joined the suit, but the state has moved to dismiss it.

At a hearing Thursday, Meehan’s lawyer accused the state of silencing victims.

An assistant attorney general argued Meehan should have come forward either soon after abuse or after the passage of a 2003 federal law that called attention to the sexual assault of inmates.

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