Why did New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella betray the trust of hundreds of victims who were sexually, physically and psychologically abused as children while incarcerated in state custody over a span of 50 years? To keep his job?
When the Legislature created the Youth Development Center Settlement Fund in 2022 to compensate victims for the horrific abuse they suffered at the hands of state employees and pledged to appropriate $75 million a year to settle claims, Formella was an ardent supporter. “We are committed to doing the right thing here,” he said at the time. No doubt part of his calculation also was that the fund would limit the state’s exposure to ruinously costly civil suits.
He also endorsed the arrangement under which a neutral and independent administrator appointed by the state Supreme Court would decide the compensation due to individuals submitting claims, who in return waived their right to go to court. In August 2022, Formella and lawyers for victims approached John Broderick, retired chief justice of the state Supreme Court, to see if he would act as the independent claims administrator, according to a letter Broderick’s lawyer sent recently to Gov. Kelly Ayotte and which was published on the InDepthNH news site.
Broderick accepted on the understanding that he would fill the role as independent claims administrator until the job was done and that he could only be removed for “good cause” by the Supreme Court.
Broderick says, and a state audit confirmed, that he fulfilled those responsibilities diligently and fairly under the framework established by the Legislature. By the end of 2024, he had settled 386 claims for an average of $545,000 per victim.
However, when Ayotte was elected governor and took office this year, her proposed budget included no new appropriation for the fund. Moreover, she pushed the Legislature to alter the terms of the settlement fund so that the administrator would become a political appointee answering to her and that the attorney general would hold veto power over any proposed award to victims. This was accomplished by the Legislature according to her wishes, without notice or a public hearing, thereby breaking faith with hundreds of victims who relied on the state’s assurance that their claims would be decided by an independent arbiter rather than a political lackey.
While this bait-and-switch was underway, Formella’s vital support for the Settlement Fund as originally constituted evaporated. According to Broderick’s lawyer’s letter, Formella questioned why legal fees were not being paid out over time to the victims’ attorneys. Broderick replied that the statute did not appear to permit that (which the audit subsequently confirmed), but that if the attorney general provided written guidance that he could, he would comply. No such guidance was forthcoming.
According to the letter, Formella also stopped supporting the promised appropriations for the Settlement Fund, reportedly explaining to a state senator that, “I don’t want the governor mad at me.” Moreover, when Broderick confronted Formella over his about-face, the attorney general replied that “things have changed. The governor doesn’t want the fund.” And, according to Broderick’s lawyer, Formella said that his office would move to dismiss as many pending claims as possible on statute-of-limitations grounds.
The important piece of context here is that when Ayotte took office she placed Formella, whose term was expiring, on holdover status in March “to provide the governor with additional time to work with him and evaluate the operations of the department.”
This month, Ayotte announced that she was renominating Formella, subject to confirmation by the Executive Council: “Over the last several months, I appreciated the opportunity to work closely with the attorney general and see firsthand his commitment to keeping our state the safest in the nation. Together, we will ensure New Hampshire continues to support law enforcement, keep violent criminals off our streets and protect victims.”
Just not the victims of sexual and physical violence suffered while in state custody.
It’s a reasonable inference that Formella’s change of heart on the Settlement Fund was part of an audition seeking Ayotte’s benediction for a new term. Why else would he abandon his ethical and moral obligations? If there is a better explanation, we would be glad to hear it. Otherwise let’s call it what it appears to be: sleazy, and an embarrassment to the state of New Hampshire.