The Horrors of the New Hampshire Sununu Youth Detention Center

Claire Best
14 min readJun 2, 2023

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The Importance of Speaking Up Even When You Are Threatened.

It’s very hard for anyone who has been serially abused as a child to have the courage to speak up as an adult, even more so when the State of New Hampshire endorsed the abuse and the very people arguing both sides of the YDC horror show may have been involved in the cover ups — for decades.

I have heard reports that victims of abuse at YDC are being censored about what they say because it incriminates New Hampshire’s Law Enforcement agencies as well and the AG is protecting those. Why should attorneys be silencing them for speaking the real truth to power? Are those attorneys scared that their own lucrative businesses will be blackballed?

What’s happening in New Hampshire is critical to shed sunlight on. It follows a pattern across the US that can no longer be ignored:

Systemic abuse of children under state care: brainwashing, sexual abuse, violence, trafficking by State agency-backed, DHHS, FBI & CIA backed operations that public officials can no longer hide.

A lot of it can be tied to the CIA program MK Ultra and Maximus Inc.

The rise in child abuse under New Hampshire state care directly correlates to the introduction of Maximus Inc founded by David Mastram, a Vietnam vet.

New Hampshire was an early target for Maximus via Kathleen Kerr from NH DCYF who now sits on the board of Maximus which is located at 10 Ferry Street, Concord, New Hampshire where a number of other dubious agencies related to the CIA, FBI, children and drugs are located.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximus_Inc.

As over 1000 complaints against the State of New Hampshire for child abuse at the Sununu Youth Detention Center get under way, we cannot forget that former NH AG Gordon MacDonald blamed “victim negligence” when Russ Rilee filed the class action law suit a couple of years ago for David Meehan et al v New Hampshire.

“Contributory negligence is nothing more than the state’s way of saying that I am to blame for the horrendous torture, rape and abuse I endured at the hands of their systems, institutions and employees,” Meehan, 39, said in a phone interview Saturday. “These people were allowed to do the unthinkable and get paid for it, and now they’re being protected, while me and my family suffer.”

AG Gordon MacDonald was talking about children when he blamed “victim negligence”.

When Anna Carrigan blew the whistle on child abuse under state care she faced retaliation. She too was dismissed by former AG Gordon MacDonald and then she was dismissed by the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

When I spoke up about a “Kids for Cash” type enterprise I was threatened with a defamation suit by Shaheen & Gordon on behalf of the NHCADSV and Amanda Grady Sexton. I was asked to back down while Amanda Grady Sexton was running for re-election in Concord.

This is what matters to Gordon MacDonald and Amanda Grady Sexton — their own careers above a very serious issue in which they/their agencies/ city councils have been involved and which involves serious child abuse paid for with taxpayer money. They/their agencies/city councils are accountable to the public and to the victims of child abuse, coercion, cover ups, bullying, lying, stalking and worse.

I’ve heard attorneys dismiss Gordon MacDonald’s response to the class action YDC suit as just standard response but it’s not. It shows you the true value the former AG and current New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice assigns to children — zero for their welfare, a lot for the amount of money that can be made in grants, lawsuits from their abuse.

Gordon MacDonald follows in the footsteps of others in the New Hampshire Supreme Court — especially Chuck Douglas Esq who allegedly ordered a 13 year old girl back to the Youth Detention Center after she was impregnated and she refused to name her rapist. I understand the State paid for the abortion. Chuck Douglas is the Chair of the Judicial Selection Committee. Why?

Until AG John Formella came along, every AG and every Governor and the entire New Hampshire court system, child welfare system ignored, brushed aside, hid decades and decades of child abuse under State care.

Nobody was charged for ordering an intern to delete files of child sex abuse during a time when the DCYF knew there was a criminal investigation going on. Why not?

All that happens is that the head of the DCYF steps down and the head of the DHHS steps down.

No charges, no prosecutions. No accountability. That leaves only one answer: The State Officials in New Hampshire — the very ones who disburse federal grants, who are supposed to look out for the constitutional rights of ALL New Hampshire Citizens, who are supposed to be prosecuting employees of the YDC — endorsed the abuse and endorsed the cover ups of abuse.

If the AG’s office were to prosecute the head of the DCYF or the head of the DHHS, Youth Prosecutors, Sheriffs or anyone else who is a decision maker, the discovery would reveal the complicity of the AG, the agencies tied to them and State Officials. Actually these need to get exposed for the future safety of all children.

The rise in suicides, rise in drug addiction and attrition of young adults from New Hampshire should be sounding the alarm bells that the pattern of state backed abuse, lies, cover ups, self-dealing is no longer acceptable and is unsustainable for the State.

Two prosecutors for the YDC abuse from the AG’s office have resigned. Why?

Millions of documents have been hidden. This is not by accident. It was coordinated. Budgets were approved, contracts were approved, new hires were approved, reviews were approved. The State was given documents. The people in charge in the AG’s office, DCYF, DHHS, Department of Corrections, Department of Revenue, Executive Committee, NH Bar, NH Courts made choices and those choices indelibly harmed lives of children and their families— forever.

A Judge has cited conflicts of interest for the State to be playing both sides.

Rockingham Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman called out the conflict in the Attorney General’s Office prosecuting the former state employees who allegedly abused children, while at the same time defending the state in the civil lawsuit brought by the victims.

The Sununu Youth Services Center was formerly called the Youth Development Center or YDC where juveniles were incarcerated as delinquents.

“But you seem to be saying it’s fine if the person hasn’t been convicted yet, for the state to go to court, seek bail, put somebody on trial, stand up, tell the jury this guy committed aggravated felonious sexual assault on that day, and the state of New Hampshire can come into a different courtroom and say, oh, no, that never happened. The person we called the victim in the other courtroom is a liar. It just — that seems incongruous to me,” Schulman told lawyers for the state during a recent hearing.

It’s not yet clear if any representative from the Attorney General’s Office or the New Hampshire State Police will sit for depositions.

Michael Garrity, communications director for the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, said the matter is being considered.

“We have received the notices, are reviewing them, and will respond as appropriate,” Garrity said.

The deposition notice allows state employees to skip appearing if the state produces documents lawyers for the victims are seeking.

The NHCADSV puts out a message to solicit victims but the NHCADSV is responsible for the abuse of teenagers: NH v Griffin Furlotte in which a teen girl testified that police and public officials lied to her, bullied her, stalked her and turned her life into a nightmare. Furlotte (who was 17 when arrested) indicated he’d been treated as a “monster” in pretrial detention. The NHCADSV meanwhile gloated and turned up at his hearing wearing pins in support of “the victims”.

A third alleged victim decided not to continue with the charges. She spoke in support of Furlotte in court Monday.

“For months, I was jerked around by the staff at Pembroke Academy, local police and officials involved with the investigation,” she said. “I was manipulated, lied to, kept in the dark and force fed enumerated versions of events that supposedly happened between griffin and I.”

Furlotte has been incarcerated since his arrest in June. He is expected to remain in jail until June 2020.

“He was a teenager who made some mistakes, but he didn’t do the most serious and graphic things he was accused of in this case,” defense attorney Charles Keefe said.

Furlotte will also have to register as a Tier 1 sex offender.

The county attorney’s office said the victims and Pembroke police gave their consent to the sentencing agreement.

Missing from WMUR’s report is the statement by one of the girls who mentioned that she felt manipulated by the prosecutors. Also missing are Furlotte’s own statements about the treatment he received in pretrial detention as a 17 year old: “I was verbally abused, assaulted and worse as a direct result of these accusations”.

They were accusations, they had not been proven and the State of New Hampshire, NHCADSV, Police Department, DA’s office, Department of Corrections thought it was perfectly fine to lie to Furlotte’s mother, cart him off in front of her and then abuse him in pretrial detention and beat him into submission to plea for his life. It’s NOT OK and there must be accountability.

Here is the NHCADSV’s fickle message regarding the YDC abuse having celebrated their victory on Griffin Furlotte — putting their hand out to help because they get an estimated 20% of each civil settlement. Like the AG’s office, they play it both sides for their own advantage.

Anyone who was physically or sexually assaulted or abused at the YDC is encouraged to contact their local crisis center. Crisis center advocates are available across New Hampshire to provide free and confidential support to anyone impacted by sexual violence. Crisis center services are also available to anyone who has experienced or witnessed abuse, or who is looking to find ways to support someone who has. Crisis centers can provide individual support, support groups, assistance reporting abuse, help understanding options and the legal system, court and hospital accompaniment, housing assistance, and referrals for local services including mental health and substance abuse services. To speak with an advocate, please call the statewide domestic violence hotline at 1–866–644–3574 or the statewide sexual assault hotline at 1–800–277–5570 or find the crisis center nearest you at https://www.nhcadsv.org/member-programs.html.

The YDC cases present conflicts of interest for David Vicinanzo/Nixon Peabody as well since he is legal counsel for the NHCADSV (along with Shaheen & Gordon) and it was to the NHCADSV that AG Gordon MacDonald (formerly David Vincenzo’s partner at Nixon Peabody) referred complainants. Douglas & Leonard have a conflict of interests too.

Letters from Nixon Peabody and Riley & Associates have been going out to solicit more plaintiffs against the state and to get more money for victims. Why are they not going after police, corrections departments, juvenile prosecutors, former AGs, Governors, NH Supreme Court Chief Justices, Department of Corrections, DHHS, DCYF and other Children’s Agencies who were involved in the coercion of minors, bullying, abuse, drugging, cover ups? The club is why. The club that was referred to in the 1990s in the Washington Post. The same club that continues 24 years later in 2023. The club with Chuck Douglas, ex NH Supreme Court Chief Justice, as Chair of the NH Judicial Selection Committee.

There has been widespread dissatisfaction for some time in New Hampshire, they say, with the state’s clubby, closed-door method of handling complaints against judges and other lawyers.

Not a single thing has changed in 24 years. Why not?

Why should anyone in this self-serving, self-preserving get off? They allowed — all of them — to let decades pass without addressing serious complaints against YDC, against police, against attorneys, judges, prosecutors, state agencies.

Lives have been lost. Lives have been ruined and all they care about is the continuation of the club and the money that comes with it that can be squirreled away into trusts, LLCs, non-profits, real estate and Pandora Papers accounts.

AG John Formella (bless him) said that $100 million fund was the right thing to do. He is the first and only AG to take the issue of the YDC abuse seriously and yet he is between a rock and a hard place too — treading the tight rope between his duty to the public and not being ostracized from the old boys network club.

Thus, the State has stalled on discovery, had millions of documents hidden and failed to prosecute those in charge of endorsing the abuse, turning a blind to it, allowing it to continue despite complaints.

Gordon MacDonald, former Governors and AGs, present and former Youth Prosecutors, Corrections Officers, Police, Child Services, and non-profit affiliates should be required to answer for their failures.

Kathleen Kerr received letters of complaints about DCYF in 1999. But nothing was done. Instead she started Maximus Consulting in 2000 and Maximus got no bid contracts to look after, inter alia, YDC and Medicaid. Why?

Sylvia Gale appealed for conflicts of interest regarding her own roles with children’s services in 1999. She won her appeal. Who was pulling the strings? There were very clear conflicts of interest and these conflicts of interest very likely also exacerbated child abuse that was encouraged, covered up, pushed under the rug because of the money that the state could obtain from the federal government.

Some people in New Hampshire have become very rich off all of this. Maximus Inc at 10 Ferry Street has dozens off off shore Pandora Papers accounts. There are others too.

David Vicinanzo, Russ Rilee, Shaheen & Gordon, Douglas & Leonard won’t go after their friends who were complicit in the cover ups and nor will NHCADSV. They all have conflicts of interest.

I started speaking up about a criminal trial (NH v Owen Labrie) in which I saw malfeasance involving many of the same players who are playing both sides of the YDC cases. As a result of my speaking up, despite receiving threat of a defamation suit from Shaheen & Gordon on behalf of the NHCADSV and Amanda Grady Sexton, people have come forward. I am thankful and I see little changes but still not enough to repair the damage that has been done. Bad acts that led to a suicide at Dartmouth College and several ruined lives.

Yesterday I was invited to give a streamed interview in which I made a reference to human trafficking, MK Ultra, the Government CIA program to brainwash children.

As a result of the interview, I was called yesterday by Samantha Monroe who had escaped Straight Inc in Florida. She had been there from the ages of 12–15 in the 1980s. Her story has been well documented as well as the story of Straight Inc which is tied to operatives who were close to George Bush Senior, as John Sununu was whose name adorned the Youth Detention Center. Samantha is part of a group of survivors across the country. She estimates there to be several thousand in her group.

Today I was called by another woman in Memphis Tennessee who was also part of an MKUltra program as a child. She texted me the following:

“Thank you for taking my call and for caring! Been waiting my whole life to meet someone like you who is courageous enough to do something like this.”

I am still in stunned shock by the horrific and graffic details I heard from these two women about how they were treated as children in care and how they have been silenced.

The woman in Tennessee has a chip tracking her that was inserted in her ankle without her permission. She told me that it is at the Youth Detention Centers that these experiments happen. She was held down in chains, raped repeatedly from the age of 5. She was impregnated before she was a teenager. It was not until she was in her 30s that she started to have flash backs of what had happened because her memory had been wiped clean by “the program”.

The independent reports regarding the Sununu YDC include very similar descriptions of children being held down in chains, forced to have sex with each other, being raped and impregnated.

I believe that the millions of documents that the State of New Hampshire has hidden regarding the Youth Detention Center may reveal New Hampshire’s own involvement in MK Ultra type experiments on children in state care at the Youth Detention Center.

What has been hidden at the Youth Detention Center and by other programs and agencies in New Hampshire providing services to children is likely to be far more sordid and horrifying than any of us can imagine.

The CIA and the FBI have not denied what happened to Samantha. Both of these agencies are directly connected to 10 Ferry Street, Concord, New Hampshire where Children’s Trust Fund, Quest Diagnostics, Dataminr, International Rescue Committee, Virtus LLC are located as well as Maximus. I find it hard to believe that is just a coincidence.

I am speaking up now in the hopes that enough people read this to demand full transparency from New Hampshire’s Agencies on what exactly they knew, when they knew it, who knew it and who covered it up.

I am reminded of the outside review of DCYF/YDC ordered by Governor Maggie Hassan in 2016 and my shock at discovering that the review came on letterhead from an organization (CSF) that had ceased to exist earlier that year.

https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_nh/739662

Maggie Hassan’s executive order for audits of state agencies which she declared in 2014 wasn’t even worth the time created to write it in the end because the audits are all inside jobs.

Just 4 hours north of Concord in Montreal, a class action regarding MK Ultra’s experiments at McGill University Hospital is ongoing. The US is trying to get immunity.

There should be no immunity for any public official, agency, state employee, attorney engaged in, endorsing, covering up child abuse.

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