A jury will decide whether a man held down a teenager while he was raped at a youth center in the 1990s.

Crime

Bradley Asbury, now 70, worked as the manager of the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester.

NICK PERRY, Associated Press

November 22, 2024

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Jurors began deliberating Friday over whether a New Hampshire man restrained a teenage boy while he was raped at a juvenile detention center in 1998.

Bradley Asbury, now 70, worked as the manager of the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. He is accused of holding Michael Gilpatrick, 14, on a staircase with the help of a co-worker while a third co-worker raped the teen and a fourth co-worker forced him to perform a sex act.

This is the second criminal trial to arise from a large-scale investigation into historical abuses at the center in 2019. Asbury is among 11 men arrested who worked there or at a related facility in Concord.

The case hinges on testimony from Gilpatric, now 41, who said he struggled with the attack for years and that talking about it in court was part of the healing process. He said he wanted to bring the perpetrators to justice and recalled having an out-of-body experience at the time of the alleged attack.

“I see it happening, but I can’t do anything,” he testified. “I just wasn’t there. But there.

Gilpatrick got into several heated arguments during cross-examination and at one point called the lawyer a “sick man” as the lawyer urged him to repeat his rape claims over and over again.

During closing arguments, defense attorney David Rothstein said, “I want to apologize to anyone I may have upset during this conversation or any other conversation.”

Rothstein said Gilpatrick lived in an imaginary world in which he created villains to explain what went wrong in his life.

“Mike Gilpatrick falsely accused Brad Asbury of a crime that he not only did not commit, but which was virtually impossible to commit in any shape or form,” Rothstein said.

He said there were no eyewitnesses or corroborating evidence, and that Gilpatrick changed important details over time to fit the narrative. He said such an attack on an open staircase in the center of the facility could have been seen or heard by someone else.

He said Gilpatrick was motivated by money, noting that he had already received more than $146,000 in pending settlements in a related civil case.

Prosecutors said Gilpatrick could not accurately recall all of the events surrounding the alleged rape, but was always consistent in his recollection of the key event. He couldn’t tell anyone at the time because Asbury was in charge, the prosecution said.

“Instead of guiding Mike, giving him advice, showing him a better way to go out and live his life, these four grown men, including the defendant, violated trust,” said Assistant State Attorney General Adam Woods.

Asbury, charged with two counts of complicity to aggravated sexual assault, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each count if convicted.

A previous case against Victor Malavet ended in a mistrial in September after jurors deadlocked on whether he raped a girl at a Concord prison. A new trial in this case has not yet been scheduled.

The investigation also led to extensive civil litigation. More than 1,100 former residents have filed claims alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades. In the only civil case to go to trial, a jury in May awarded David Meehan $38 million for abuse he said he suffered in the 1990s, although that verdict remains controversial as the state seeks to lower the amount to $475,000 dollars.

The Associated Press generally does not name those who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Meehan and Gilpatrick did.