Concord Monitor – Former New Hampshire youth center leader defends his tenure after damning trial testimony

The former head of New Hampshire’s juvenile detention center is defending himself against claims that he encouraged or was “willfully blind” to physical abuse during his nearly four decades at the facility.

Ron Adams did not testify during the landmark trial in which a jury found the state negligent and awarded $38 million to a man who said he was beaten and raped hundreds of times at the Youth Development Center. But his name came up often: Several former staffers testified that Adams opposed training or disciplining staff, was dismissive of whistleblowers and endorsed his predecessor’s philosophy: “If the kids give you some (expletive), hit ’em ( expletive) out. .”

“The fish is rotting at the head,” said attorney David Vicinanzo, who argued that the facility’s leaders enabled a culture of abuse. And while part of the verdict remains disputed, the judge who oversaw the trial has said that based on the evidence, the leaders “either knew and didn’t care, or didn’t care to know the truth” or “ willfully blind” to widespread physical crimes. and sexual abuse.

Adams disagrees. In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, he said he recalled police being involved in at least three cases of suspected sexual abuse.

“I’ve had a number of people over the course of 39 years, four months and 25 days who ended up being punished by me for various things, not necessarily sexual abuse,” he said. “We have not ignored the cases.”

Adams began his career in 1961 at what was then New Hampshire State Industrial School, working his way up from science teacher to superintendent in charge of the entire facility in the mid-1980s, retiring in 2001. Now 87, he says he does not remember most of the 10 former employees facing criminal charges, nor does he remember the former employees who testified about their interactions with him in the 1990s when prosecutor David Meehan was at the facility .

A woman testified that when she reported suspected resident abuse to Adams, he suggested she was a troublemaker and unsuitable for the job. Karen Lemoine also said Adams cursed and threw her out of his office when she sought further discipline for an employee who “joked” about a plot to have teenagers sexually assault her.

Adams said Tuesday that he does not remember Lemoine, and that he never threw anyone out of his office.

“The rest of the cases are very, very serious. If it were to happen, it would be very serious,” he said. “If it occurred to me, I would have said, let’s call the state police and have a formal investigation, because that’s what we did.”

He also disputed testimony from former employees involved in investigating resident complaints. One testified that Adams said he would never “take a child’s word” over that of a staffer; another said Adams had actually passed along the advice he had received about hitting children when they misbehaved.

“I used to tell people, ‘Those used to be my instructions, but they certainly aren’t anymore,’” he said. “I certainly never advocated it. I demanded discipline against anyone who did it.”

Meehan, 42, went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later. Since then, more than 1,100 other former residents of what is now called the Sununu Youth Services Center have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse over six decades.

Adams said he suspects many of the claims are false, though he expressed confidence in both the juries and the head of a separate settlement fund the state created as an alternative to lawsuits.

Although he did not know Meehan, Adams described positive interactions with other residents, including a quiet boy he said he persuaded to care for a flock of baby chickens. He said he also kept his promise to buy class rings for residents who graduated after their release.

“It’s good to have those kinds of memories; it makes it all worth it,” he said.