More Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest in NH YDC Cases?

by
Claire Best
David Vicinanzo and Nixon Peabody have been out soliciting clients for the YDC cases for several years. He never mentioned that his son, Matthew Vicinanzo, clerked for Jeffrey Howard on the First Circuit, who was AG of NH during the time when David Meehan and others were being abused at YDC.


d) “It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.” 
(e) state or imply an ability to influence improperly a government agency or official or to achieve results by means that violate the Rules of Professional Conduct or other law.

He never mentioned that US Attorney Jane Young had hired his son as assistant US Attorney after she had been assistant AG under Gordon MacDonald, who is David Vicinanzo’s ex-partner from Nixon Peabody and who referred plaintiffs of YDC abuse to David Vicinanzo’s client: the NHCADSV who get kickbacks from civil settlements and who lobbied to lift the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases.
Whatever happens in the cases brought by David Vicinanzo and Rus Rilee for their clients in the YDC cases, while it has been established by the Judge that the AG’s office has a conflict of interest, it now appears that David Vicinanzo himself has an undisclosed conflict of interest due to his son’s employment history.
There are likely to be appeals in both civil and criminal cases in the YDC abuse and it’s quite likely that Jane Young will become involved as US Attorney.  How’s that going to play out with David Vicinanzo’s son working for her?
And for anything that ends up at the First Circuit Court of Appeals from the YDC cases, note that Matthew Vicinanzo clerked for Judge Jeffrey Howard who was AG in New Hampshire when the State knew that sexual abuse was going on at YDC.  Shouldn’t Jeffrey Howard be on the trial stand answering what he did and didn’t know when he was AG?

We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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AG Jeffrey Howard had a task force in April 1993 for “Child Abuse and Neglect AG’s Task Force Conference” on which Laurie List Police Officer James F McLaughlin worked. 
James F McLaughlin’s misconduct records are being kept from public view by the AG’s Office, including Brendan Chase, who is currently arguing against David Vicinanzo for the State in the YDC cases.  James McLaughlin worked with David Vicinanzo and Gordon Macdonald in the Diocese of Manchester cases. McDonald pulled him out of retirement to run the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St Paul’s School, which also involved David Vicinanzo and the NHCADSV.  They all knew or should have known, that James F McLaughlin had been caught in Federal Entrapment (ruled by First Circuit in 1998), and they did all know that he had been added to the Laurie List in the middle of the St Paul’s Investigation, but David Vicinanzo praised Judge Richard McNamara for keeping it from the public.
Coincidentally – witnesses on the stand for the David Meehan trial have said that complaints were made and police investigations were supposed to have happened.
James McLaughlin wrote “Male Victims of Child Sexual Abuse and their Subsequent Criminal Antisocial Acts” in Knight Stick Magazine (1994) & “Police Certification for Child Sexual Abuse Cases” also in Knight Stick Magazine in 1994.  

CONCORD – U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young announces the appointment of Matthew Vicinanzo as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA). AUSA Vicinanzo will handle civil and criminal Civil Rights matters in the District of New Hampshire.

“Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicinanzo comes to the U.S. Attorney’s Office with a breadth of experience from private practice,” U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young said. “Matt is a New Hampshire native who cares deeply about our communities. He is eager to expand the Civil Rights practice in this Office, and further support the civil and constitutional rights of Granite Staters.”

Most recently, AUSA Vicinanzo represented clients in civil and criminal matters as Counsel at Crowell & Moring LLP, where he handled investigations and litigation related to the federal False Claims Act, anti-fraud statutes, and complex commercial disputes. AUSA Vicinanzo clerked for United States Chief Judge Jeffrey R. Howard, and he attended Georgetown University Law Center.

AUSA Vicinanzo is expected to investigate and prosecute civil and criminal Civil Rights matters. The U.S. Attorney’s Office was allocated two new attorney positions to address civil rights, and domestic terrorism/violent crime in New Hampshire. An AUSA focused on domestic terrorism and violent crime was appointed in October 2023.  

What’s he going to do—investigate the AG’s conflicts of interest regarding YDC to help his father, David Vicinanzo, with his claims against the State?
David Vicinanzo claimed that “We should have all done better” or similar words in the opening statements of David Meehan v NH.
David Vicinanzo is bringing a case against the State that involves a time period in the 1990s when he was both a Federal Prosecutor in Massachusetts and an Assistant US Attorney in New Hampshire and Jeffrey Howard, for whom his son clerked recently, was the AG.  Given the nature of the cases, it’s extremely unlikely that there isn’t back channeling going on between members of the Vicinanzo family, US Attorney Jane Young’s office and First Circuit Court of Appeals, Jeffrey Howard’s Office.
The grants received by NH for state child care, domestic & sexual violence have to go through an approval process which also requires audits which get signed off at the highest levels: Secretary of State, AG, Governor, US Attorney. It is impossible that Jane Young, Jeffrey Howard, David Vicinanzo weren’t aware of these or the shenanigans going on.

“I worry that some inadequacy on my part, a mistake, omission – something will hurt my client, will impede David Meehan, not just my client who is also now my friend, from getting the justice that he has so long been denied,” Vicinanzo said.

The evidence will show the devastation that was inflicted on a young boy under the “care of the state of New Hampshire.

“And the second thing is the evidence of the depravity, the wanton neglect of the state government that permitted and covered up the abuse of David Meehan and others because it didn’t care enough,” Vicinanzo said.

Vicinanzo said top the administration was aware of the abuse. “The fish rots from the head,” Vicinanzo said.

It came from the top of YDC, the top of DHHS, a place filled with nepotism “obsessed with protecting staff from any accountability,” he said.’”

David Vicinanzo is obsessed with protecting himself and his colleagues in the First Circuit, AG’s office, US Attorney’s office from any accountability.  The place is overflowing with nepotism.
The State’s Laws on Nepotism need urgent attention given that $160 million plus is being argued by David Vicinanzo and co and is likely to end up on some level on the doorstep of the First Circuit and US Attorney’s Office, where his son Matthew Vicinanzo is tied in.
David Vicinanzo’s law firm, Nixon Peabody, has been involved in at least two Ponzi schemes (one involving public money and one resulting in a prison sentence for the attorney). He was one of the very early partners. “The fish rots from the head.”

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