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Mistrial declared after New Hampshire jury deadlocks in youth detention center rape case

[January 23, 2025] By HOLLY RAMER

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday after jurors deadlocked on whether a former worker at New Hampshire's youth detention center raped a 14-year-old boy in 1998, but the defendant still faces 15 other charges in separate cases.

Jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the trial of Stephen Murphy, 55, of Danvers, Massachusetts, marking the second mistrial connected to abuse allegations at state-run youth facilities. Jurors first indicated they were at an impasse Wednesday morning, their second day of deliberations.

“We are obviously disappointed that the jury could not reach a unanimous decision in this case,” Attorney General John Formella’s office said in a statement. “However, we respect the legal process and the careful deliberation of the jurors. We remain committed to seeking justice for all victims and holding all of the perpetrators accountable.”

No decision on whether to retry the case has been made, said Michael Garrity, spokesperson for the office. Murphy is scheduled for trial in April, July and October on the additional charges involving three other boys who were at the facility in the 1990s.

In the current case, Murphy was charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault and accused of helping to carry a 14-year-old boy to a stairwell at the Youth Development Center in Manchester and then raping him while coworkers restrained the teen. One of the other men, Brad Asbury, was convicted in November of two counts of being an accomplice to aggravated sexual assault and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 27.

It was the arrest of Murphy and another former youth counselor in 2019 that thrust allegations of widespread abuse at the facility, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center, into public view.

During his three-day trial, jurors heard from Michael Gilpatrick, who previously had testified about the allegations at both Asbury’s criminal trial and at a civil trial involving another former youth center resident. He said he didn’t 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.

“Once I was about to accept the fact that it wasn’t my fault and I was able to stop blaming myself, I knew I had to say something,” he testified on Jan. 16.

In closing arguments Tuesday, defense attorney Charles Keefe emphasized inconsistencies between Gilpatrick’s trial testimony and what he told police in 2020 and suggested he has “made it worse with each telling” in hopes of winning money in a separate civil lawsuit.

“When he changes everything that he says happened before and after and even during the alleged assault, he has forfeited the privilege of having you believe him,” Keefe told jurors.

Keefe also contrasted the way Murphy calmly answered “absolutely not” to repeated questions about whether he abused Gilpatrick with the anger Gilpatrick displayed during his testimony.

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Stephen Murphy, right, and his attorney Charles Keefe watch as the judge gives the jury instructions following closing remarks during his trial at Hillsborough County Superior Court, Tuesday Jan. 21, 2025 in Manchester, N.H. (David Lane/The Manchester Union Leader via AP, Pool)

“He’s told this story many times since 2020, but he still acted like it was the first time he was telling it,” Keefe said. “Prosecutors may suggest to you this means he relives it with each telling. Our common experience tells us that the more we talk about something awful that actually happened, the easier it is.”

Assistant Attorney General Audriana Mekula countered that Gilpatrick came forward “not for money that he doesn’t need or attention that he doesn’t want” but because it was the right thing to do, even if it meant hours talking about sexual assault in a courtroom packed with Murphy’s friends and relatives.

“Do you think he’d willingly do that in front of all these people, these strangers, and feel that raw emotion of the moment, the anger, the sadness and the exhaustion, if this did not really happen?” she said. “He has not healed from what the defendant did to him, but his behavior in that healing process does not mean he’s forfeited his privilege for you to believe him.”

Murphy and another former employee were arrested in July 2019 and charged with sexually assaulting David Meehan, who later became the first of more than 1,100 former residents who have sued the state alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades. A jury awarded Meehan $38 million in May, though that verdict remains in dispute as the state seeks to reduce the amount to $475,000.

Concurrent with Murphy’s arrest, the attorney general’s office launched a broad investigation into the facility. A total of 11 men have been arrested, though charges against one were dropped due to a lack of evidence, another was found incompetent to stand trial and a third died awaiting trial. Murphy was the fourth to go to trial.

In addition to Asbury, Stanley Watson was convicted Jan. 13 of three counts of aggravated sexual assault against two boys. Another case that ended in a hung jury 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 Meehan and Gilpatrick 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 building in a new location.

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