BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — David Meehan, whose allegations of abuse at New Hampshire’s youth detention center sparked nearly a dozen arrests and more than a thousand lawsuits, finally took the witness stand Wednesday, seven years after he first told his wife, “They raped me.”
“I think I’m more ready than anybody else in this room to do this right now,” he said.
Meehan, 42, spent three years at the Youth Development Center, where he alleges he was repeatedly beaten, raped and locked in solitary confinement in the late 1990s. He went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later. His lawsuit went to trial last week, and he began testifying Wednesday, describing his early years and arrival at the facility as a 14-year-old in 1995.
His attorneys displayed a photo of him as a smiling toddler clutching a football as he testified about physical abuse by his parents, including his mother’s habit of putting her cigarettes out on his face. They later displayed a closeup photo of Meehan’s face taken when he arrived at YDC and asked him to describe what he saw.
Israel says Iran will not get off 'scot
China identifies 15,000 projects to be backed by 1
China's online transactions rise during Spring Festival holiday
Xizang reports robust foreign trade growth in Jan
Vietnam’s ‘Provisional National Government’ offers empty promises, lawyers say — Radio Free Asia
Chinese C919 jetliner arrives in Singapore to attend airshow
SOEs' AI push may transform industries
9 facing charges in what Canada police say is biggest gold theft in country's history
Energy storage industry put on fast track in China
Who owns businesses in California? A lawmaker wants the public to know
Hengqin starts new customs operation in S China