Man convicted of holding teen while she was raped at NH youth center

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — A jury in New Hampshire on Tuesday found the former leader of a youth detention center guilty of detaining a teenager who was raped in 1998.

Bradley AsburyThe now 70-year-old was convicted twice of being an accessory to aggravated sexual assault. In both cases, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The jury deliberated for three days. four day trial.

Asbury served as a group leader at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. He is accused of restraining 14-year-old Michael Gilpatrick on a staircase with the help of a colleague, while a third staff member raped the teenager and a fourth forced him to perform a sex act.

This was the second criminal case stemming from a broad 2019 investigation into long-running abuse at the center. Asbury is among 11 men arrested who worked there or at a related facility in Concord.

The case relied on the testimony of Gilpatrick, now 41. Gilpatrick said he had been trying to cope with the attack for many years and that talking about it at the hearing was part of the healing process.

He said he wanted to hold the perpetrators accountable and remembered having an out-of-body experience during the attack.

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

Gilpatrick cried and hugged family members after the verdict was read Tuesday afternoon.

“God is good and the truth has prevailed. And I was believed,” he said as he left the courthouse.

Meanwhile, Asbury nodded as he was handcuffed and thanked his family and supporters as he was led away. Defense attorney David Rothstein left the courthouse without comment.

“We hope this will provide some relief to the victim,” Assistant State’s Attorney Adam Woods said of the verdict.

Last week, Gilpatrick got into heated arguments during cross-examination, at one point calling Rothstein a “sick man” only to have his defense attorney repeat the rape allegation over and over again.

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

Rothstein said Gilpatrick lives in an imaginary world where he creates villains to explain things that are going wrong in his life.

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

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

He said Gilpatrick was motivated by money, noting that he had already received more than $146,000 in exchange for an expected settlement from a related civil case.

The prosecution said Gilpatrick did not have full recollection of all events surrounding the rape, but was always consistent in his recollection of the key incident. The prosecution said that he could not tell anyone at the time because Asbury was responsible for the incident.

“Instead of guiding Mike, counseling him, showing him a better way to go out and live his life, these four grown men, including the defendant, violated trust,” Woods said.

An earlier case against Victor Malavet ended in a mistrial in September after jurors deadlocked on whether he raped a girl at the Concord facility. A new hearing in this case has not yet been scheduled.

The investigation also led to extensive civil litigation. More than 1,100 former residents filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades. In the only civil case heard so far, a jury in May awarded David Meehan $38 million in damages for harassment he said he suffered in the 1990s; however, this decision is still controversial as the state is trying to reduce this amount to $475,000.

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

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