Legal Briefs: News from Around NH

Austin M. Mikolaities joins Shaheen & Gordon

Shaheen & Gordon, PA has welcomed attorney Austin M. Mikolaities to the firm’s business law and real estate groups, based out of the firm’s Dover office.

Mikolaities’ practice on complex corporate transactions, including purchase focuses and sales, mergers and acquisitions, 1031 exchanges, membership interest transfers and stock/asset sales. He has knowledge of commercial transactions, commercial leasing and entity formation, and seeks to build lasting client relationships by providing ongoing legal guidance for businesses.

In addition to his private practice, Mikolaities gained experience working directly for a large renewable energy corporation where he handled contract analysis, risk assessments and compliance with data privacy laws, including CCPA and GDPR.

“We’re excited to continue to grow and bring Austin on board,” says Sean O’Connell, chair of the Business Law Group at Shaheen & Gordon. “He has already built an impressive reputation on the Seacoast for his quality legal work and personal approach, a perfect match for our company.”

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Settlement fund payouts for YDC abuse now top $95 million

A settlement fund created by New Hampshire lawmakers continues to pay out millions of dollars to settle a flood of credible abuse claims against staff at the state-run juvenile detention facility formerly known as the Youth Development Center (YDC).

One hundred and thirty-four new claims were filed from April through the end of June, bringing the total number of claims to 552, according to a newly released report by the administrator of the settlement fund, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick. The rate of new claims was lower than the previous quarter, when 159 new claims were filed.

The settlement fund also authorized monetary awards for an additional 52 claimants since Broderick’s last quarterly report, bringing the total dollar amount of settlements to $95.6 million for 186 claimants so far; 349 claims are still pending.

The majority of claimants allege both physical and sexual abuse.

The report comes as some of the settlement fund’s operations are temporarily on pause to allow administrators time to adjust to changes designed to make the settlement fund more appealing to the nearly 1,300 alleged victims who have brought civil lawsuits against the state.

Those changes, passed by the state Legislature last month, include an increased cap on payments to $2.5 million, and new categories of compensable abuse. The new legislation also raised the total pool to $160 million, up from $100 million when the fund was first created.

Attorneys representing the majority of alleged YDC victims say they support the changes and will recommend the settlement fund for most of their clients.

“Once the revised claim materials are available, I expect to see a significant increase in the number of cases filed with us through June of next year,” wrote Broderick.

According to Broderick, roughly half of all claims made with the YDC settlement fund were originally brought as lawsuits in Superior Court.

Only one civil defendant alleging abuse at YDC has seen their case reach the trial stage, despite years of litigation. In May, jurors awarded David Meehan a historic $38 million for abuse he suffered while in state custody at YDC in the 1990s. The actual amount Meehan will receive is still in question after the state filed a motion arguing the damages it should be limited to $475,000 because the jury identified only one incident of abuse.

The deadline to file claims with the YDC settlement fund is June 30, 2025. — Jason Moon, NH Public Radio

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Hanover prosecutor charges 20 more protesters with violations; 4 others get off

The Hanover Police prosecutor filed charges on Thursday in Lebanon District Court for the last batch of the 89 people arrested on May 1 during a pro-Palestinian protest on the Dartmouth Green.

Prosecutor Mariana Pastore charged 20 additional protesters with violations and opted not to charge four, including Dartmouth History Professor Annelise Orleck, with criminal trespass.

“I am of course personally relieved to no longer be facing criminal charges,” Orleck said in a Friday email. “But that does not erase the trauma of what happened to students, faculty and community members on May 1.”

New Hampshire State Police troopers held Orleck, who is in her mid-60s, on the ground as they arrested her along with scores of others within two hours of a handful of tents being erected on the Dartmouth Green on May 1. Dartmouth officials called police to remove the protesters, who had gathered in response to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and did not comply with repeated warnings to disperse.

“I have never received an apology from Dartmouth or from the state police for their violent assault on me or for the brutality they unleashed against an entirely peaceful protest,” Orleck said in her Friday email. “I believe that I am owed one, as we are all.”

Pastore, reached by phone on Friday, declined to comment on active cases, so it remains unclear how she determined which protesters to charge and which to let off.

Combined with charges Pastore previously filed in June, of the 89 protesters arrested in Hanover in May, 55 have been charged with violations and 32 haven’t been charged. Violations do not carry jail time, nor can they result in a criminal record, but fines and court fees may be imposed.

While Orleck said she’s relieved that the students arrested May 1 will not have criminal records, she described the charges as “totally unjust.”

“They should not be facing any legal repercussions,” Orleck said. “They did nothing wrong. The aggressors on May 1 were the police.”

In May, soon after the arrests, charges were dropped entirely for two reporters for The Dartmouth student newspaper.

Meanwhile, Andrew Tefft, a 1997 Hanover High School graduate who lives in Watertown, Mass., is the only person arrested that night who faces a misdemeanor charge for resisting arrest. If convicted, he faces up to a year in jail.

Criminal charges also remain pending against Kevin Engel and Roan Wade, who were arrested for criminal trespass last October when they erected a tent in front of Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock’s office in Hanover.

“All they did was sit in a tent,” Orleck said of Engel and Wade. “The right to peaceful protest is the bedrock of democracy. It is time for this whole trauma to end.”

Orleck maintains that the only “just outcome” would be for the college to “publicly request that the prosecutor drop all charges, issue an apology to those of us who were brutalized that night and promise never again to bring riot police onto campus.”

Earlier this week, the ACLU of New Hampshire called on both Dartmouth and the University of New Hampshire to drop trespassing and disorderly conduct charges against pro-Palestine protesters arrested on May 1.

The 20 protesters who were charged with violations this week are scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 5, although they can file waivers of arraignment as many in the previous group did ahead of their arraignment date earlier this week. — Nora Doyle-Burr, Valley News

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Jaffrey Zoning Board rejects appeal against 16-unit development

The Jaffrey Zoning Board unanimously denied a request for a hearing on a proposed 16-unit cluster development that the board rejected last month.

The application, submitted by Fougere Homes, proposed 16 condominium units at 79 Town Farm Road, a 24.7-acre lot that currently has one home and some outbuildings. The applicant proposed that rather than build the six homes allowed by the town’s density calculator, clustering the buildings at the front of the property and building 16.

The board denied a variance that would have allowed that greater density, finding the application did not meet the criteria showing that denying the variance would cause “unnecessary hardship.” The board ultimately found that there was nothing to prevent the property from being developed in the usual way, one of the standards in deciding whether there is hardship.

Fougere Homes appealed the decision, arguing that the board misapplied the law surrounding the “unnecessary hardship” criteria. The applicant considering the board must first determine whether a hardship exists when special conditions of a property render the use sought as “reasonable.”

The applicant considered that the board did not establish that primary standard, and based its decision on a secondary standard – that due to special conditions on the property, it cannot be reasonably used in strict conformance with the town’s municipality.

Fougere Homes considered that second standard should only come into play if the town finds the first isn’t met, and considered that the board “did not conduct a proper evaluation under the primary standard in this case.” The applicant considered that the special shape of the property – a skinny access point creating a “flagpole” shape, and about a quarter of the property covered in wetlands – created unique circumstances that should have been considered.

The board disagreed with the arguments put forth in the appeal, and denied it. Board members said they did not find the conditions of the property to be wholly unique when compared to others in town.

“There were multiple multi-shaped properties in that area, and most, if not all, have wetland issues,” said ZBA member Walter Batchelder.

“I don’t think we erred finding there was no hardship. That’s where I come out on this,” said ZBA member David Jeffries.

The board denied the appeal unanimously. The applicant has 30 days to further appeal the decision to the Superior Court. — Ashley Saari, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript