John Stephen under fire in Executive Council race amid youth detention center abuse fallout

Republican candidate for Executive Council in District 4 John Stephen has put his record of fiscal responsibility while serving as New Hampshire Commissioner of Health and Human Services from 2003 through 2007 at the center of his campaign for Executive Council this year.

“As Commissioner of HHS, the department of Health and Human Services, you remember, I was able to return value to the taxpayers and over $143 million in four years because we worked hard to make sure we provided services to those in need. But we also looked at every single dollar and penny and were efficient,” Stephen said during a recent appearance on WMUR’s CloseUp.

However, critics have said the fiscal conservatism Stephen has touted is undermined by the one of the largest debts in the history of the state — the potential multi-billion dollar settlements to the nearly 1200 victims of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse at the state’s youth detention center (YDC) — the facility overseen by Stephen during his time as NH DHHS commissioner.

One man, David Meehan, who spent three years at the facility and was among the first victims whose case went to trial, alleged workers at the facility treated him like a “sex slave and a punching bag,” according to one report.

In May 2023, a jury awarded Meehan $38 million, finding the “state’s negligence allowed him to be beaten, raped and held in solitary confinement as a teen.” The ultimate dollar amount of that verdict is currently under dispute by the state. 

According to the Associated Press, 10 men have been criminally charged with either sexual assault or acting as accomplices to the assault of more than one dozen teens at the YDC from 1994 to 2007 — a period of time that includes Stephen’s entire tenure as commissioner of NH DHHS.

RELATED: Kelly Ayotte’s role in alleged YDC cover-up under fire from 2024 Republican candidates, victims

As structured, the NH DHHS Division for Children, Youth, and Families operates the Sununu Youth Services Center (SYSC), the institution at  the center of the more than 1,000 lawsuits resulting from abuse incurred as a result of inadequate oversight of the facility. Inadequate, Stephen’s opponent says, because of the very cuts he made during his time there.

Jim O’Connell, Stephen’s opponent in the district 4 executive council race, said Stephen’s ability to cut budgets doesn’t seem very impressive given the outcome.

“Anybody can strip millions of dollars out of a program,” O’Connell said. “A good steward of taxpayers money is somebody who makes sure that taxpayers money are properly spent. And in this case, he was so busy trying to make sure he cut the money wherever he could, that he left programs not properly funded. And that has a real consequence. I know it had consequences for the elderly in this state, consequences for people in mental health services. And it had consequences like the YDC.”

Stephen was also the target of Republican attacks over his time at DHHS.

“As DHHS Commissioner, Stephen should have been acutely aware of the horrific abuses occurring under his watch, yet his inaction speaks volumes about his priorities and commitment to vulnerable children,” Frank Staples, a Republican primary candidate in the 2024 governor’s race, wrote in an op-ed on a conservative New Hampshire blog.

“Supporting a man who was in charge of the department that was raping and sodomizing children….I just can’t understand anyone supporting Stephen. The revictimizing of the victims is what is happening with every endorsement of Stephen ….this is more than politics,” added Terese Bastarache, a longtime YDC victim advocate who was also a Republican opponent of Stephen in the district 4 primary.

Stephen is not the only New Hampshire Republican with problematic ties to the YDC who’s now receiving criticism for allowing widespread abuse at the center to occur under their watch.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte has also found herself under scrutiny for not acting on abuse claims at the YDC facility during her time as New Hampshire Attorney General, especially after a 2010 report prepared by the Disabilities Rights Center (DRC) shows Ayotte’s office had exposure to abuse allegations while she was in office.