9/11 victims’ fund architect slams changes to New Hampshire abuse settlement program

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — An attorney who helped design and implement the 9/11 victims’ compensation fund says New Hampshire lawmakers have eroded the fairness of a settlement program for those who were abused at the state’s youth detention center.

Deborah Greenspan, who served as deputy special master of the fund created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, recently submitted an affidavit in a class-action lawsuit seeking to block changes to New Hampshire’s out-of-court settlement fund for abuse victims. She’s among those expected to testify Wednesday at a hearing on the state’s request to dismiss the case and other matters.

More than 1,300 people have sued the state since 2020 alleging that they were physically or sexually abused as children while in state custody, mostly at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Most of them put their lawsuits on hold after lawmakers created a settlement fund in 2022 that was pitched as a “victim-centered” and “trauma-informed” alternative to litigation run by a neutral administrator appointed by the state Supreme Court. But the Republican-led Legislature changed that process through last-minute additions to the state budget Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed in June.

The amended law gives the governor authority to hire and fire the fund’s administrator and gives the attorney general — also a political appointee — veto power over settlement awards. That stands in stark contrast to other victim compensation funds, said Greenspan, who currently serves as a court-appointed special master for lawsuits related to lead-tainted water in Flint, Michigan.

She said it “strains credulity” to believe that anyone would file a claim knowing that “the persons ultimately deciding the claim were those responsible for the claimant’s injuries.”

“Such a construct would go beyond the appearance of impropriety and create a clear conflict of interest, undermining the fairness and legitimacy of the settlement process,” she wrote.

Ayotte and Attorney General John Formella responded by asking a judge to bar Greenspan’s testimony, saying she offered “policy preferences masquerading as expert opinions” without explaining the principles beyond her conclusions.

“Her affidavit is instead a series of non sequiturs that move from her experience to her conclusions without any of the necessary connective tissue,” they wrote.

The defendants argue that the law still requires the administrator to be “an independent, neutral attorney” and point out that the same appointment process is used for the state’s judges. They said giving the attorney general the authority to accept or reject settlements is necessary to give the public a voice and ensure that the responsibility for spending millions of dollars in public funds rests with the executive branch.

As of June 30, nearly 2,000 people had filed claims with the settlement fund, which caps payouts at $2.5 million. A total of 386 had been settled, with an average award of $545,000.

One of the claimants says he was awarded $1.5 million award in late July, but the state hasn’t finalized it yet, leaving him worried that Formella will veto it.

“I feel like the state has tricked us,” he said in an interview this week. “We’ve had the rug pulled right out from underneath us.”

The Associated Press does not name those who say they were sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly. The claimant, now 39, said the two years he spent at the facility as a teenager were the hardest times of his life.

“I lost my childhood. I lost things that I can’t get back,” he said. “I was broken.”

Though the settlement process was overwhelming and scary at times, the assistant administrator who heard his case was kind and understanding, he said. That meeting alone was enough to lift a huge burden, he said.

“I was treated with a lot of love,” he said. “I felt really appreciated as a victim and like I was speaking to somebody who would listen and believe my story.”

Separate from the fund, the state has settled two lawsuits by agreeing to pay victims $10 million and $4.5 million. Only one lawsuit has gone to trial, resulting in a $38 million verdict, though the state is trying to slash it to $475,000. The state has also brought criminal charges against former workers, with two convictions and two mistrials so far.

The 39-year-old claimant who fears his award offer will be retracted said he doesn’t know if he could face testifying at a public trial.

“It’s basically allowing the same people who hurt us to hurt us all over again,” he said.