MANCHESTER, NH – Stephen Murphy took the stand Friday and in a booming voice said that allegations he sexually assaulted David Meehan 28 years ago are “absolutely false and baseless.”
“Did you do anything at all to David Meehan?” defense attorney Charles Keefe asked.
“Absolutely not,” Murphy said. “It’s a complete false accusation.”
It was the fourth day of trial for Murphy, 56, of Danvers, Mass., a former youth counselor at the Youth Development Center charged with eight counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. He is accused of forcing a then 14-year-old Meehan to perform fellatio on him in 1997-98. Four of the counts accuse him of forcing the teen to perform the sex act while the others allege he used his authority as a youth counselor to coerce Meehan to engage in the sex act.
After Murphy’s testimony, the defense rested and the attorneys gave their closing arguments. The Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District jury will begin deliberations on Monday.
Murphy testified when he first learned of the accusations he was “stunned. Shocked. I was even angry to be accused of false accusations. Baseless.”
Asked by Keefe what he was doing for work at the time, Murphy replied he was employed by the Boston Red Sox. Immediately, Senior Assistant Attorney General Audriana Mekula objected. Judge Amy Messer, after a bench conference, sustained the objection and ordered the question and answer be stricken from the record.
Keefe asked him if anything has changed in the eight years since he learned of the allegations. He said things were worse. “It’s affected my family, my career, my reputation,” he said over Mekula’s objection. The judge sustained the objection.
“It has gotten worse as time goes on,” he said. “I’ve waited six-plus years to be heard.”
Under cross-examination, Murphy became angry as Mekula questioned him about punishment meted out to residents for violating rules. At one time she asked him if he had a lot of latitude in deciding if a resident would be written up for a violation. He asked her what she meant by latitude.
After questioning revealed punishment could be anything from no room confinement up to 10 days confinement, Mekula asked if a whole gamut of punishment was doled out.
Murphy asked again what she meant, to which Mekula asked him if he didn’t know what the word gamut meant. “You do have a master’s degree in education,” she said.
“Don’t be sarcastic with me,” Murphy told the prosecutor. “Don’t think you’re better than others.”
“You like to be in control of what words are used,” Mekula responded.
In her closing argument, Mekula reminded jurors of the anger Murphy flashed just over words.
The prosecutor also questioned Murphy about required training he failed to complete in 1997-98, among them training for handcuffing and fire safety.
Yet, she said, in 1998 he was recertified in aggression management.
“But definitely completed that aggression management training,” the prosecutor said. “You made sure you did that every year.”
He said that was for safety reasons.
Mekula said he was physically proficient in holds and takedowns, a four-punch deflection and kick deflections, among other techniques.
Murphy said that was the safest way to put a resident in a hold if he was a danger to himself or others.
“Things are different today,” he said.
“We’re here for a crime that happened in 1997-98,” Mekula said. “No crime ever happened,” Murphy said.
Keefe, in his closing argument, maintained the state produced no evidence to support the allegations. He portrayed Meehan as a deeply troubled man struggling with reality, who spent up to 20 hours a day on the internet researching conspiracies and the people at YDC. He either believes what he alleges or he is making up stories, Keefe said.
He said it is understandable that being committed to the YDC at a young age (Meehan was 13 years old when sent there in 1995) could make him bitter about his childhood.
“That doesn’t give him license to make false allegations,” Keefe said.
He also pointed to the many changes Meehan has made in his account of what happened in the alleged rapes. He said Meehan, in one instance, said Murphy held him down on his stomach on his bed and another time said he was on his back.
In another alleged assault, Meehan testified Murphy assaulted him as he was on his back on his bed, as Woodlock held his legs down. But in other police reports, he said Woodlock held the door and Murphy assaulted him while he was on his stomach on the metal bed frame.
He said the state has not produced a witness to the alleged assaults or evidence to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt and he asked the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.
Mekula, in her closing argument, said Meehan’s words alone are enough for a conviction. But she said there is much more evidence supporting what he said including timecards and operations and communication logs.
Meehan’s recollections of when the alleged assaults took place correspond with those documents, records he did not know existed when he went to police.
Mekula said he came into the courtroom and told them about the difficult, traumatic moments of his life “because they happened and because they are the truth. He told exactly how this defendant violently raped him.”
After the first assault, she said, Meehan testified how Murphy called him a “little cocksucker” and left him crying in his room.
Meehan testified about another alleged assault when Murphy punched him from behind in the checkroom and then, again, forced his penis into the teen’s mouth. When done, Meehan testified Murphy beat him up “as if David did something wrong.”
She said Murphy raped the teen again and again in November and after he returned from being AWOL in January 1998 and continued through May 1998. David finally gave in, he testified, because he wouldn’t get hit, bloodied or bruised if he complied, Mekula said.
Mekula said Meehan did tell Tom Searles, a youth counselor in King Cottage, where he was transferred after one alleged rape and beating, who asked him how he got injured. Searles, he testified, told him, “That doesn’t happen here little fella.” Searles was among the 10 men charge with abusing the teens. He has since died.
Meehan ultimately was transferred to Orion House, which he liked because he said he was safe. Inexplicitly, he was returned to YDC and East Cottage where he confronted youth counselor James Woodlock during a group therapy session. “You guys are sick,” he testified he told him. “You guys are fucking rapists.”
Almost immediately, he was returned to Orion House.
Woodlock was convicted in September of two counts of being an accomplice to the rape of Meehan.
Meehan decided to go to police in 2017, with the support of his wife Erin. He was worried because his son had gotten into trouble and he feared he would end up at YDC and be raped.
Meehan who was sitting with his wife during closing arguments, wiped his eyes with a tissue as Mekula spoke.
The prosecutor said the defendant never thought this day would come, “that we would never know the violence of him pushing his penis in David’s mouth, that we would never know he ejaculated in David’s mouth over and over. He thought no one would ever believe David.”
Mekula urged the jurors to take the 1998 photo of David with them into the jury deliberation room and look at it.
“Are those the eyes of a big tough guy?” she asked. “Or is it the photo of a scared little boy trying to survive East Cottage for five months in 1998?”
Pointing at Murphy, she said, “This husband, father, brother is also guilty of raping David over and over and over again.”