June 12, 2026

YDC Update—A word from David Meehan

To our clients—

We are sharing a letter written by David Meehan, the first survivor of physical and sexual child abuse at the Youth Development Center to bravely tell his story in court. We encourage you to read it.

Ahead of Kristy Gesse’s trial beginning Monday, David’s words are a critical reminder that the courtroom remains an essential path to accountability. Kristy’s case is one of the first to ask a jury to hold the state responsible for placing children in contracted homes it chose and continued to use. The outcome matters for hundreds of survivors.

We are with you every step of the way.

Contact Us

The best way to reach us is through the CaseStatus app. You can also call our YDC hotline at 603-628-4060 and ask to speak with a victim specialist. If you are incarcerated, please make sure 603-628-4060 is on your approved legal contact list.

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To All Survivors—

Brothers and sisters,

We are one. The state failed every one of us.

Some of us were abused inside their own facilities—YDC, Anna Philbrook, Tobey School, and the rest. Others were taken from our homes and handed over to private group homes and contractors who hurt us. The system created two different legal paths. That was never our choice.

The YDC Settlement Fund was only for the ones abused in the state-run places. A lot of survivors who got hurt in contracted homes got left out. For them, the courtroom is the main path left.

That’s why the Kristy Gesse trial starting Monday matters. It’s one of the first real tests of whether the state can be held responsible when it placed kids in homes it chose and kept using. This one is for the hundreds of survivors who were sent to those places.

What we’ve done together has already forced the truth into the open. You can see it right now at the Sununu Youth Services Center. The things that used to stay buried for decades are now out in the light. That didn’t happen because they decided to do the right thing. It happened because survivors stood up and refused to stay quiet. My case and the work so many of you have done made that possible.

Most YDC cases are still paused while my appeal moves through the Supreme Court. The contractor cases are moving now. These are different tracks, but they run through the same state and the same failure. They took us into their custody and then failed us—whether they ran the place themselves or gave us to someone else.

We stand together. There is no competition here.

To every survivor:

You are not alone.

You are not the problem.

You are not broken for remembering what they did to you.

You are the evidence.

We did this.

And we aren’t going away.

We will keep speaking—in court, to the legislature, in public, wherever the truth needs to be heard—until there is real accountability and real change.

We are still here.

We are still fighting.

And we aren’t going anywhere.

In solidarity and in truth,
David Meehan