CONCORD, N.H. (AP) 鈥 The New Hampshire attorney general鈥檚 office has agreed to a $10 million settlement in the case of a man who alleged that he was gang-raped in a stairwell at the state鈥檚 youth detention center in the 1990s.
Michael Gilpatrick鈥檚 lawsuit against the state would have been the second of to go to trial, but instead both sides agreed to settle out of court, his lawyers said Saturday.
The payout is four times the maximum amount available to those who submit claims via the state鈥檚 for abuse victims, though less than half the amount a jury awarded last May in the first of its kind that went to trial. The in that case remains in dispute as the state seeks to slash it to $475,000.
Gilpatrick, now 41, was 14 when he was sent to the Youth Development Center for three years in 1997. His lawsuit accused 10 staffers at the Manchester facility of sexual or physical abuse, including repeated rapes and being choked to the point of unconsciousness.
鈥淭here was nobody you could go to at YDC to talk to. You were literally stuck in your own thoughts, in your own fear every single day,鈥 he said in a . 鈥淭hat place turned us into what we were. I can鈥檛 say what I am now because I鈥檓 a better person now. But coming out of that place, I was a monster.鈥
In one incident, Gilpatrick said, two staffers held him down in a stairwell while another raped him and a fourth man forced him to perform a sex act. Those allegations resulted in criminal charges against four former staffers whom Gilpatrick called a 鈥渉it squad;" two of them have faced trial so far.
, 70, was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison after being convicted in November of being an accomplice to aggravated sexual assault. But jurors deadlocked in January on whether was guilty of rape, leading to a mistrial. Murphy, who denied assaulting Gilpatrick, faces three other trials related to other former residents.
鈥淭he four of them used to roll together, and they would go to different cottages and beat kids,鈥 Gilpatrick testified at . 鈥淭hey would literally come over and just go door to door and beat every single one of us, down the line.鈥
The settlement spares Gilpatrick from what likely would have been another emotionally difficult court proceeding. He also testified at the two , at times lashing out angrily at defense lawyers.
He said he did not tell anyone what happened to him at the time because dorm leaders were involved in the assault, and he then spent decades trying to bury his memories.
鈥淥nce I was about to accept the fact that it wasn鈥檛 my fault and I was able to stop blaming myself, I knew I had to say something,鈥 he testified on Jan. 16.
Eleven former youth counselors since the attorney general鈥檚 office began investigating the facility in 2019, though charges against one were dropped, another was found incompetent to stand trial and a third died awaiting trial. Two men have been convicted, and another case that is expected to be retried later this year.
The Associated Press generally does not identify those who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly, as Gilpatrick and others have done.
The youth center, which once housed upward of 100 children but now typically serves fewer than a dozen, is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu. Lawmakers have approved closing the facility, which now only houses those accused or convicted of the most serious violent crimes, and replacing it with a much smaller one in a new location.
