CONCORD, N.H. — Convicted sexual abuser Bradley Asbury claims new evidence in the Youth Detention Center (YDC) scandal shows the victim lied, but prosecutors say there is nothing new in the documents cited.
Asbury, 71, is serving 20 to 40 years in state prison after he was convicted last November on two felony counts of being an accomplice to the 1998 rape of YDC resident Michael Gilpatrick, who was 14 at the time.
According to the motion for a new trial filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court North in Manchester, Asbury’s lawyer David Rothstein, the state did not turn over evidence from the civil side of the YDC litigation before trial, evidence that Rothstein claims shows Gilpatrick lied, including making supposed fake allegations about being abused by other YDC staffers.
Asbury is the first YDC abuser to be convicted in the long-running saga that’s seen thousands of people come forward seeking justice from the state. But few of the victims have been able to get even an apology from the state for the years of physical and sexual abuse they suffered as children by state employees.
Gilpatrick, a key witness in many of the civil and criminal cases alleging abuse, did get an apology when he entered into a $10 million settlement agreement with the state last year.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting just a handful of men like Asbury, out of hundreds of named abusers, while vigorously defending the state against victims like Gilpatrick.
Rothstein claims the state’s Civil Bureau did not start handing over relevant evidence until three months before Asbury’s November trial. And more evidence has been released since the trial, which Rothstein claims undermined Gilpatrick’s credibility. Rothstein states that the new evidence includes a denial from one of the accused staffers interviewed by police.
But as Assistant Attorney General Audriana Mekula notes in her response, Rothstein had all the supposedly exculpatory evidence before Asbury’s trial and did not pursue it in court. In large part, because the evidence involving other YDC staffers would have been admissible. The abuse alleged against the other staffers were not relevant to Asbury’s case, and the staffer’s denial is not proof that the abuse did not happen.
Asbury has already filed an appeal with the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which is snarling up his current request for a new trial.
Hillsborough Superior Court Judge William Delker ordered this month he will not grant a hearing on the new trial request with the Supreme Court appeal pending. Rothstein is asking the Supreme Court to issue an order that will allow Delker to move the new trial request forward.
This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.