Jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the trial of Stephen Murphy, 55, of Danvers, Massachusetts , marking the second mistrial connected to abuse allegations at state-run youth facilities. Jurors first indicated they were at an impasse Wednesday morning, their second day of deliberations. We remain committed to seeking justice for all victims and holding all of the perpetrators accountable. Murphy, who was charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault, was accused of helping to carry a year-old boy to a stairwell at the Youth Development Center in Manchester and then raping him while coworkers restrained the teen.
One of the other men, Brad Asbury, was convicted in November of two counts of being an accomplice to aggravated sexual assault and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. It was the arrest of Murphy and another former youth counselor in that thrust allegations of widespread abuse at the facility, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center, into public view.
Murphy faces 15 additional charges involving three other boys who were at the facility in the s. Our common experience tells us that the more we talk about something awful that actually happened, the easier it is.
Murphy and another former employee were arrested in July and charged with sexually assaulting David Meehan, who later became the first of more than 1, former residents who have sued the state alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades. A total of 11 men have been arrested, though charges against one were dropped due to a lack of evidence, another was found incompetent to stand trial and a third died awaiting trial.
Murphy was the fourth to go to trial. In addition to Asbury, Stanley Watson was convicted Jan. Another case that ended in a hung jury is expected to be retried later this year. The Associated Press generally does not identify those who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly, as Meehan and Gilpatrick have done.
