Doctor Testifies David Meehan Left Mentally Scarred by YDC Abuse – InDepthNH.org

By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org

BRENTWOOD – In the more than 20 years since David Meehan was released from Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, he has struggled with addiction, depression and severe anxiety while having trouble holding down a job and forming healthy relationships.

He has been robbed of the opportunity to feel safe in his surroundings… The traumas are there with him every day, Dr. Dylan Gee stated.

All of this is the result of the horrific physical, sexual and mental abuse he endured for years while an inmate inside the center, then known as YDC, according to mental health experts called by Meehans’ legal team. Gee, a professor of physiology at Yale University, testified that Meehans crippling post-traumatic stress disorder forces him to live every day with the abuse he experienced as a teenager. The memories flood Meehan and become overwhelming, she testified, as she constantly confronts the abuse.

Hundreds of oral and anal rapes, the repeated brutal beatings, the consequences of solitary confinement, Gee said.

Gee appeared in Rockingham Superior Court on Wednesday as the second expert called by Meehans’ team after Dr. Terry Allen Kupers finished his testimony on Tuesday. Gee herself was followed by forensic psychiatrist Dra. Daphne Glindmeyer, who began her testimony late in the afternoon. All three have said that Meehans’ PTSD is the main mental health issue in Meehans’ life.

Meehans’ lawsuit against the state Department of Health and Human Services is the first to go to trial, but not the last. There are nearly 1,300 survivors of YDC and other state facilities who say they were also abused in state care. According to Meehans’ lawsuit and testimony already presented to the jury, YDC staff covered up the abuse while administrators looked the other way.

Meehan is seeking millions of dollars in damages, in part for the claim that he was unable to work because of his PTSD. A man in his 40s, Meehans was already approved for Social Security disability insurance. Gee said he will need intensive treatment for the rest of his life.

Martha Gaythwaite, the defense attorney representing the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, tried to poke holes in the PTSD diagnosis. According to Gaythwaite, Meehan’s real mental health problem is undiagnosed bipolar disorder and a propensity to make up stories and believe in delusions. Gaythwaite dug into Meehans’ medical records with Gee, trying to get the psychologist to change her mind about Meehan’s problem.

Gaythwaite focused on two incidents in Meehan’s life in which he was hospitalized around 2019 and 2020. Meehan acted strange and delusional during these incidents, shouting from a balcony and saying during the 2020 incident that he was a biblical figure. According to Gaythwaite, these were manic episodes that showed Meehan suffers from bipolar disorder.

But Gee pushed back, saying the hospitalizations did not qualify under psychiatric guidelines as true manic episodes. In both cases, Meehan was under the influence of drugs, making it impossible to classify them as manic episodes, Gee said. There is no other evidence in Meehans’ medical records of other manic episodes, Gee said.

There is no evidence to me that there was pre-existing bipolar disorder before YDC, Gee said.

Glindmeyer testified that all the symptoms of Meehans’ mental health disorders strongly indicate that his PTSD is the driving factor at play. Glindmeyer is expected to testify further Thursday.