Ex-youth counselor's lawyer responds to dropped NH charges

An attorney for a former youth counselor says New Hampshire prosecutors dropped charges against his client because they realized they couldn't get a conviction based on what he calls baseless, uncorroborated claims.

Bruce Kenna represents 50-year-old Stephen Murphy, of Danvers, Massachusetts, who was charged in July with raping a teenage boy at New Hampshire's youth detention center 26 times in the 1990s. He responded Thursday, a day after Attorney General Gordon MacDonald dropped the charges against Murphy and another former counselor.

Not ruling out future charges, MacDonald said court deadlines were impeding the state's ability to conduct a broader investigation into the Youth Development Center.

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