To understand the New Hampshire Youth Detention Center’s Cover Ups of child sex abuse, think about the Diocese of Manchester, its attorneys, investigators, the AG’s office, and decades of a partnership supporting corruption above the law — there is no separation of powers.
In 1997, an Act was introduced in the NH State House, which was supposed to take effect in 1999 but never did — AG Phil McLaughlin, appointed by Governor Jeanne Shaheen, was in office. He succeeded Jeffrey Howard. Under the two Attorneys General and Governor (and successors), abuse of children under state care at the Youth Detention Center was covered up.
Had House Bill 1557-FN taken effect, the public would not be footing the $160 million + bill today for child abuse at the Youth Detention Center.
“HOUSE BILL 1557-FN
“AN ACT establishing the New Hampshire racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act.”
“The Department of Justice has stated that although this bill places requirements on the attorney general, they are unable to determine if this could be done by existing staff or if new staff would be necessary.”
We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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Four years later:
April 27, 2003 — The Concord Monitor:
“New Hampshire’s child endangerment law offered state officials wide leeway in bringing a case against the diocese. That law extends beyond parents or legal guardians to include anyone who violates “a duty of care” to a child — in other words, not just abusers themselves but those who have a responsibility to protect children from abuse. “
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has failed to protect children from abuse because of the lack of division between Church and State and Attorneys, non-profits, and “independent” investigators/police working with the two.
That lack of division continues today since former Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin is currently the “independent investigator” for the Diocese of Manchester, while the Concord Police have denied access to her disciplinary records “for privacy reasons.”
There shouldn’t be any privacy, especially because Curtin covered up the felony-level sexual abuse of a senior administrator’s son (13 or 14) by an 18-year-old student, which is referred to in civil suit 1:18-cv-00390 (Jane Doe v St Paul’s School filed on May 11, 2018) — Paragraphs 43–47:
This felony-level rape is known about by many in the St. Paul Community and attorneys introduced by Julie Curtin to the case.
So why did she cover it up?
New Hampshire. RSA 169 C:3:
“VII. “Child placing agency” means the department, Catholic Charities of New Hampshire, child and family services of New Hampshire, or any successor organization. “
On March 3, 2003 — the New Hampshire AG’s report on priest sex abuse at the Diocese of Manchester was published. The names on the front page of the report are:
Peter W. Heed
Attorney General
N. William Delker
Senior Assistant Attorney General
James D. Rosenberg
Assistant Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
33 Capitol Street
Concord, N.H. 03301–6397
(603) 271–3671
What happened to these? –
AG Peter Heed stepped down in 2004 after being accused of sexual assault at a State-funded convention on sexual assault and domestic violence.
William Delker went on to marry Annmarie Timmins — a journalist — who had covered the Diocese scandal in the Concord Monitor. Delker is now a judge and on the Judicial Conduct Committee. He teaches at the University of New Hampshire, where AnnMarie Timmins moderated a discussion on freedom of information with her husband on the panel for: “Keeping the Light On: Holding Government Accountable,”
Alex Walker of Divine Millimet is the head of the Board of Trustees for UNH. Walker is also the CEO of the Catholic Medical Center. https://yours.usnh.edu/news/usnh-board-of-trustees-announces-change-in-leadership/
James Rosenberg was allegedly the best man at William Delker’s & AnnMarie Timmins’ wedding and is godfather to one of their children. He is now a partner at Shaheen & Gordon. His role in the Diocese priest sex abuse cases appears in articles that have been removed from links to the Concord Monitor archives — perhaps with some help from Annmarie Timmins.
Peter Heed had been an attorney in Keene who represented claimants (especially children) referred to him by Keene Police Detective James F McLaughlin, who was on the State’s “Laurie” list of corrupt police officers but had his crimes hidden from public view. Peter Heed was DA of Cheshire County (Keene) before he became AG, taking over from Phil McLaughlin, who saw an opportunity to investigate the Diocese. James F McLaughlin was hired as a primary investigator into the Diocese priest sex abuse for the AG.
James F McLaughlin framed Father Gordon MacRae, who has been incarcerated without due process since 1994. The police detective failed several times with false stories — (which included one from Jon Plankey, who worked in a family business he had. Peter Heed was the attorney for Jon Plankey) — that he’d picked up from DCYF/Children’s Catholic Services employee Sylvia Gale. Finally, he convinced the drug-addicted son of another employee for DCYF, Thomas Grover, that he could get several hundred thousand dollars from the Diocese if he accused MacRae. James F McLaughlin currently works for Chris McLaughlin (no relation), who is the DA of Cheshire County Superior Court.
Thomas Grover would visit the Youth Detention Center (YDC) with his wife, Trina Ghedoni, to visit her son, Charles Glenn. In 2008, Charles Glenn gave a statement to former FBI agent James Abbott that was used as part of a habeas corpus for Father MacRae to get a new trial.
It was rejected by Judge Larry Smukler. The statement claimed that Thomas Grover had admitted to Charles Glenn, during his visits to see him at YDC, that he accused Father MacRae for money. Grover was bribed.
Charles Glenn is a victim of YDC abuse. He is John Doe #9 in the original Youth Detention Center complaint of David Meehan v State of New Hampshire, which was filed by Russ Rilee and rejected by the State for “victim negligence.” Charles Glenn would be sent to a doctor associated with the CMC while he was at YDC.
Charles Glenn’s case was transferred to David Vicinanzo and Nixon Peabody when he joined Russ Rilee to sue the state for YDC abuse sometime in 2022. David Vicinanzo was involved with the cozy NH Bar club, which has been around for several decades, was criticized in a 1999 Washington Post article, and has largely ignored ABA Rule 8.3 regarding the reporting of professional misconduct.
Vicinanzo’s primary business appears to be defending against Government investigations.
Vicinanzo started representing the Diocese in early 2002 after he’d joined Nixon Peabody in November 2000. He switched sides from being a federal prosecutor for New Hampshire to representing the Diocese, under investigation by the State. Gordon MacDonald joined him shortly after. Julie Curtin — the current “independent investigator for the Diocese worked for MacDonald when he was AG— thus further showing the links between the Diocese and the State. He knew she’d covered up the felony-level sexual abuse of the senior administrator’s son at St. Paul’s school because he had access to all the records, and she was working under him and at his direction.
Nixon Peabody was formed in 1999 and was based between Boston and Manchester.
Growing a legal business required new clients with deep pockets. The Diocese of Manchester was perfect, especially in light of the headlines coming out of Boston, which AG Phil McLaughlin found attractive for his office and his subordinates, James Rosenberg and Will Delker.
“Worried the sex abuse scandal enveloping the Boston Archdiocese wasn’t confined to our neighbor to the south, and armed with information from a top church official, McLaughlin called two of his young staffers, Jim Rosenberg and Will Delker, into his office.
With a copy of the Globe on his desk, its banner headline of “Church allowed abuse by priest for years” revealing a dark secret, McLaughlin said what was on his mind.
“I do not believe that news of this event stops at the magic border, the fictitious line in the sand that divides New Hampshire and Massachusetts,” Rosenberg, now a lawyer at Shaheen and Gordon, remembered his boss saying. “I believe we’ve shared diocesan priests. We need to look into this.”
And so they did. Fourteen months later, after assembling a task force of investigators and state and local police, the attorney general’s office released its report, which detailed hundreds of accusations of sexual abuse against dozens of priests.
The 154-page report described in even greater detail a follow-up to the crimes uncovered by the Globe’s investigative team, called Spotlight.
That’s the name of a recently released movie detailing how the Globe cracked the case, which tarnished the Catholic church in a city that held it in the highest possible regard.
The movie ends with the Globe’s initial report funneling through the city at dawn, before the lightning-quick internet totally changed the face of news coverage. Slowly, over morning coffee, Boston learned it had become the center of what would later evolve into a worldwide scandal.
And after that final scene, New Hampshire’s law enforcement community was next in a long line of investigations, subpoenas, and news media reports that shook the faith of parishioners and led to the imprisonment of priests.”
………
“It was an extraordinary event,” (Phil) McLaughlin said in an interview. “The idea that the hierarch could permit such evil here was emotionally incomprehensible to me.”
McLaughlin began digging by meeting with Monsignor Edward Arsenault early in 2002. Arsenault assured the attorney general there were no issues in New Hampshire; no wrongdoing had occurred.
McLaughlin relayed Arsenault’s comments to the Union Leader, but the newspaper’s next-day story set off a chain reaction, beginning with a call to McLaughlin by Ovide Lamontagne, whom McLaughlin trusted despite sharp political differences.
Lamontagne twice was the Republican nominee for governor and once the party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate. He’s now the general counsel of Americans United for Life, a pro-life public-interest law and policy organization.
On that day early in 2002, though, Lamontagne was the source who alerted the attorney general’s office that big problems existed within the diocese, according to McLaughlin.
“I remember sitting at my desk, and he said the (Union Leader) story wasn’t exactly accurate,” McLaughlin said. “He said there had been some issues.”
Lamontagne, who later began representing the church legally, declined to confirm McLaughlin’s account or comment at all, citing attorney-client privilege, leaving it unclear how Lamontagne knew about the church abuse or how long he’d been aware of it.
But armed with this new information, McLaughlin acted instantly, calling Arsenault into a meeting at Lamontagne’s Manchester law office. McLaughlin said he had a “frank discussion,” with Arsenault, adding that he entered the meeting “agitated.”
“The core of the conversation was not only the fact that there had been incidences, but Monsignor Arsenault’s position was that these matters should and could be handled internally by the church,” McLaughlin said. “My position was that if the matters involved criminality, then they should and would be handled by the attorney general’s office. The way it was expressed was somewhat more theatrical.”
Nixon Peabody and Vicinanzo’s relationship with the Diocese was with Father Edward Arsenault, who briefly went to jail in 2014 for defrauding the Diocese, CMC, and a dead priest’s estate in the 2000s. Ovide LaMontagne of Divine Millimet advised Nixon Peabody on the settlements for the Diocese. Vicinanzo went on to give generously to LaMontagne’s political campaign.
“Lamontagne claimed that McCormack and other prominent church members wanted a speedy settlement and, in an example of behaving “pastorally” rather than as a litigant, instructed their attorneys to take a moderate stance and eschew hardline legal tactics. Lamontagne said of the diocese’s legal strategy, “That is not typical in terms of client requests.”
Lamontagne “served as a senior advisor to Senator Kelly Ayotte’s 2016 re-election campaign, co-chairs the Bishop’s Summer Reception to benefit the Bishop’s Charitable Assistance Fund and also chaired Northeast Catholic College’s Fidelity and Courage Dinner. Additionally, Ovide chairs Granite Action, a 501(c)(4) conservative issues advocacy group, and serves on the Executive Board of the Daniel Webster Council-BSA. “
The intertwining of Divine Millimet, Nixon Peabody, Catholic Charities, the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire’s non-profits with their relationship with the AGs, DHHS, PD, UNH, Children’s Advocacy Centers, NHCADSV, and elections is central to understanding the corruption knot:
“Ovide’s practice areas include healthcare, not-for-profit charitable trust litigation, and construction law. He also serves as general counsel for a number of not-for-profit organizations and has significant experience representing religious organizations. “
Edward Arsenault trained as an accountant before he joined the Diocese. He was essentially the Chief Operating Officer for the Church and in charge of increasing business for the Diocese, Catholic Risk Retention Management (insurance), and the Catholic Medical Center, which was fined $3.8 million a couple of years ago for a kickback scheme.
In 1999, he founded “Virtus LLC — Protecting God’s Children” which is part of Catholic Risk Retention Management.
“Let the children know they have a say in what happens to their bodies and that they have a right to be safe. Remind children that most people and most touches are safe. Discuss safe adults and special safe adults, and ask the children if they have any special safe adults in their lives:”
The program has been trademarked and sold all over the world. But at the New Hampshire Youth Detention Center where priests worked, it had no significance, and it didn’t with the victims advocacy groups advising the NHPD and NH AG in best practices either.
Edward Arsenault was supposed to go to prison for 4–20 years per the NH DOJ’s site and a statement made by Assistant AG Jane Young who shook his hand in the courtroom and allowed him to continue “consulting” behind bars. But he didn’t go to Concord men’s prison — he got immediately transferred to Keene jail. Jane Young got promoted to become US Attorney for New Hampshire. Vicinanzo’s son, Matthew, works for her, having clerked under former AG Jeffrey Howard on the First Circuit.
David Vicinanzo takes credit for introducing the NH Internet Sex Crimes Unit. He had to be non-phased by James F McLaughlin’s use of federal entrapment in US v Paul Gamache (1998). Deals could be sorted out when a corrupt police officer is involved who can bribe others, as he did with Thomas Grover, and Peter Heed was James McLaughlin’s pal. He’d made a business from referrals by the police detective. Every which way, it looks shady.
By 2002, AG Phil McLaughlin had plenty of resources to investigate the Diocese where money could be made, whereas in 1999, his office claimed it did not know if it had enough resources to protect against racketeering.
Edward Arsenault made a phone call to Father Gordon MacRae, which would have been recorded by Concord Men’s Prison/DOC in the Spring of 2002. He wanted Father Gordon MacRae to send him his case files and for them to be handled by David Vicinanzo, with whom he claimed he was developing a business relationship. Arsenault wanted Gordon MacRae to cease corresponding with the Wall Street Journal and Dorothy Rabinowitz, who would later publish an expose of his case. MacRae sent his files but never heard anything from Vicinanzo, who’d taken over the Diocese business from Sheehan & Phinney’s Bradford Cook.
Of all people, the Diocese investigator, Julie Curtin, knows what a sham has been going on since she worked with James F McLaughlin on the Grand Jury Investigation into St Paul’s School, obtaining student and alumni files without warrants, cold calling anyone who could be convinced they could be a victim for cash, training them for intercept calls to wealthy targets who could hear her training them on the other end of the line. She did this in December 2018 to one alumni target who contacted me to let me know about it. Julie Curtin and her pals David Vicinanzo and Gordon MacDonald got away without having the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St Paul’s School published because, as Judge McNamara wrote:
“grand jury testimony can involve “all sorts of false, damaging and one-sided information.” In holding that the Diocese of Manchester Report did not protect the privacy rights of those named, Judge McNamara concluded:
“Mark Twain famously said that a lie is halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. In an internet age, he might have added that the lie will forever outrun the truth as search engines become ever more efficient.”
Now comes the kicker:
The final list of accused priests suggests serious racketeering was going on between the AG’s office and the Diocese of Manchester, Catholic Charities, the attorneys representing these, and the police detective: James F McLaughlin and the attorneys he was involved with, including Peter Heed, the AG.
The omissions suggest that the AG’s office or the Diocese were hiding child sex abuse at YDC, where some of the priests also worked.
Father Francis Talbot, whose name Bishop McCormack supplied to AG Phil McLaughlin’s office in 2000—preceding Nixon Peabody’s involvement with the Church—is glaringly missing from the list.
Talbot went to prison, where he died. He pled guilty — whether or not he was guilty. The denial of due process, over prosecution and sentencing of Father Gordon Macrae in 1994 was enough to scare any priest into a plea deal.
Julie Curtin knows all about this because she fabricated claims against Owen Labrie and tampered with witnesses and evidence in order for the State to overcharge, over prosecute, over sentence Owen Labrie just so the blackmail/extortion racket that was so successful with the Diocese could continue with St Paul’s School with her and James F McLaughlin’s help. He was hired especially for the mission.
Talbot’s absence from the list indicates that either he wasn’t guilty and the Diocese and AG’s office knew it, or that he was guilty and that there was a cover-up of his crimes because he worked at the YDC and the State didn’t want a probe into what was going on at their youth facilities.
The Diocese paid out for crimes allegedly committed by Father Francis Talbot. Chuck Douglas represented one of the claimants. One of his accusers wanted transparency on the deals between the Diocese and its attorneys. It was never provided.
“Talbot was suspended from his priestly duties in October 2000, just a month before the Manchester Diocese reached a confidential settlement with Cody Goodwin for $200,000. Goodwin has a lawsuit pending against Talbot and is trying to have his agreement with the church rescinded by the court.”
“A Concord man, who hasn’t identified himself, and Robert Plourde of Manchester, both allege in civil lawsuits that Talbot molested them in the 1960s at the Youth Development Center, which was then called the New Hampshire Industrial School.”
“The Manchester Diocese asked for a comment on the priest’s guilty pleas issued the following statement:
“Bishop John McCormack and the Diocese of Manchester continue to be deeply concerned over the harm of any victim of sexual abuse by a priest. In this situation, when the diocese learned of the abuse, it reached out to assist the victim and permanently removed the priest from all ministry.”
It is highly unlikely that the Bishop’s statement did not get run past the attorneys for the Diocese: Nixon Peabody (David Vicinanzo, Gordon MacDonald) and Divine Millimet (Ovide LaMontagne, Alex Walker).
The judge in Talbot’s case was Robert J. Lynn, who went on to be New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice. Strangely enough, he presided over Owen Labrie’s denied appeals, which Gordon MacDonald argued while Julie Curtin was working for him in the AG’s office.
The New Hampshire AG’s report from 2003 concludes with the following statement:
“On November 16, 1999, Bishop McCormack wrote a memo to the file regarding observations made by Auxiliary Bishop Christian about MacRae’s conviction. (B3513). That memo concluded: “The sentencing in the [John Doe XVI] case was not proportionate to the sentencing in similar cases. He was convicted as a pedophile. The [John Doe] children possibly lied. Even though there may be some irregularities in the handling of his criminal trial because of the lying, based on the fact that he was criminally convicted, the Diocese did not think it could win a civil case or be able to defend, therefore, that they had supervised him appropriately and correctly.”
(B3513).
On November 14, 2001, Attorney Bradford Cook wrote to Bishop McCormack with his comments and observations on MacRae’s continued challenges to his convictions and sentences. (B3515). Cook made the following observations to Bishop McCormack: “Throughout the process, it was obvious that all of [Jane Doe II’s children] were expansive in their testimony, and it was aimed at getting a certain result, and frankly, none of the attorneys involved in the criminal or civil cases trusted their testimony to be completely accurate. Whether it was all trumped up or totally manufactured is impossible to know, but unlikely. That it was embellished was clear.”
(B3515). There is absolutely no indication on what Attorney Cook based these conclusions.”
“VIII. CONCLUSION
While the facts detailed above would have supported a prosecution for endangering the welfare of a minor against the Diocese, such a prosecution likely would have been barred by the statute of limitations. Based on the civil lawsuits filed by the victims in the 1990s, it is clear that the victims knew that the Diocese breached a duty of care to them by failing to take effective steps to protect them from MacRae’s sexual misconduct when the Diocese first learned of MacRae’s misconduct in 1983. Because the victims were aware of the Diocesan response to MacRae’s conduct more than one year before the present investigation, the State could not have relied on the discovery provision to toll the statute of limitations.”
Father Gordon Macrae was criminally prosecuted in 1994 for fabricated sex abuse that took place eleven years earlier, in 1983. Thus, the “Conclusion” in the AG’s report is completely nonsensical and essentially a shoddy excuse to block discovery which would have revealed the shenanigans going on between Church and State, the attorneys, non-profits and police tied to the two.
In light of the absence of Father Talbot’s name in the list of accused priests for the Diocese and considering his work at the YDC and accusations coming from that, it’s obvious that someone is running a cover-up. But is it the Diocese, Nixon Peabody, or the State?
Another cover-up is that of Brother Paul Crawford.
According to an August 14, 2019 article by Mark Hayward in the Union Leader, Bishop Peter Libisci “restricted the ministry of Brother Paul Crawford to people 21 years or older” following a lawsuit filed against the Diocese by Peter Hutchins Esq accusing Lucien Poulette and Brother Paul Crawford of sex abuse at YDC in 2011.
Brother Paul Crawford had worked at the YDC chapel. The article in the Union Leader has been suppressed, disabled recently — suggesting that someone is working with the paper to disable it. I believe that person to be David Vicinanzo or an affiliate of his (possibly his pro bono client — the NHCADSV who boast that they are able to create and control media in civil and criminal cases).
Brother Paul Crawford’s obituary suggests that the most likely reason the Union Leader article is disabled is that Brother Paul was the outreach director for Catholic Charities from 2002 to 2011. The organization was a primary client of Divine Millimet and thus associated with Nixon Peabody.
Brother Paul was also President of the board of directors of the Franciscan Action Network in DC and president of the Granite State Organizing Project — these two connecting him to: Eva Castillo.
“For 33 years, from 1987 to 2020, Brother Paul faithfully served the people of God in Manchester, N.H. He was a pastoral associate, youth minister, and religious education director at Blessed Sacrament Parish (1987–2002) and an outreach coordinator for Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Manchester (2002–11). He held other offices in the diocese as well. From 2002 he resided at St. Anne-St. Augustin Friary and served for six years as guardian of the Capuchin fraternity.
Brother Paul was a longtime advocate for social justice, serving as president of the board of directors of the Franciscan Action Network in Washington, D.C., and past president of the Granite State Organizing Project in Manchester.”
The scandal of scandals is not the YDC, not the Diocese, not St Paul’s School, Dartmouth College, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Concord School District — which have all been accused of cover-ups of sex abuse. It is the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and a club of attorneys, including Chuck Douglas, David Vicinanzo, Gordon MacDonald, Peter Hutchins, Shaheen & Gordon, and others who have figured out how to game the system with a little help from “Monsignor” Edward Arsenault, PD James F McLaughlin, their proteges, affiliated Victim Advocacy non-profits and the news media tied to these which includes the Boston Globe, WMUR, NH Press Association and the Associated Press.
Where there was money to be made from bribery and extortion, civil suits became more important than the reporting of child sex abuse — a mandatory requirement for all adults in New Hampshire regardless of whether or not they are members of the NH Bar or public officials.
“After Thomas Grover’s initial testimony at MacRae’s 1994 trial, Dean Clay read of it in a local newspaper. The next day, Dean Clay showed up in the courtroom. Before the trial resumed, he told MacRae’s defense counsel that he knew Tom Grover and had been told by Mr. Grover that he was involved in an insurance scheme or scam for which he will get a lot of money. Mr. Clay believed that the scam Grover referred to was this trial. After strenuous objection by prosecutors, Judge Brennan declined to allow the jury to hear testimony from Dean Clay.”
“Dominic Martin and his wife, Brianna Martin, were arrested in Boston in 2003. They pled guilty and were convicted of the extortion of a priest with false claims of sexual misconduct. Dominic Martin had changed his name. He was formerly Todd Biltcliff, a Keene, New Hampshire resident who, in 1992, received an undisclosed settlement after accusing a New Hampshire priest, Fr. Stephen Scruton, of molesting him in a hot tub at the YMCA. “
Edward Arsenault never explained whether or not claims against the Diocese resulting from the AG’s task force investigation in 2002 were credible. He told members of the Diocese that insurance would pay for the claims. He himself was expanding an insurance business for Catholic Risk Retention Management.
Edward Arsenault and James F. McLaughlin were fraudsters. Their fraud worked for the AG’s office, Nixon Peabody, Chuck Douglas, and Peter Hutchins because it brought lucrative business.
AG Phil McLaughlin described the Diocese settlements as “creative” upon his retirement in 2015. In 2020, an anonymous person posted a review of his law firm and his of wife, Janice, who worked with him:
“Posted by anonymous
November 04, 2020
Family Law
Hired Attorney Janice McLaughlin
Horrible excuse for a human being and a horrible excuse for a lawyer!! She was “hired” by the court to represent my daughter and protect her from her abusive dad who had a history of violence, mental issues, and drug use. So what does the wench do? She represents my ex-husband in court even though she signed papers saying she was representing my daughter!! My dad complained to her about her lack of caring for my beautiful daughter as well as all the slanderous lies she said in court about me and my family. Janice said, “I’m a lawyer and so I’m not under oath!” My dad said, “I’m reporting you to the board!” Janice responded, “Go ahead! My husband is the Attorney General so you won’t get far!!” My daughter is now an adult who is determined to put the pain and suffering caused by Janice behind her. However, the scars that Janice put on my poor baby will never be healed. Janice is a true demon in every sense of the word! I truly hope God can forgive her because we never will.”
AG Phil McLaughlin’s and Janice McLaughlin’s son is Timothy McLaughlin, who was at Shaheen & Gordon until recently.
He represented the NHCADSV and Concord City Councilwoman Amanda Grady Sexton, who chaired the Public Safety Committee and approved former police detective Julie Curtin’s investigations into St Paul’s School.
The NHCADSV had hired Brian Harlow, one of the first “victims” for the Diocese of Manchester, sought out by James Rosenberg in AG Phil McLaughlin’s office. They hired him in 2012, on the 10th anniversary of the Diocese cases, to expand their business. David Vicinanzo of Nixon Peabody provides “pro bono” legal counsel to the NHCADSV who work with him for the current YDC cases against the state. The AG’s office refers claimants of YDC abuse to the NHCADSV, and then Nixon Peabody, Shaheen & Gordon, Douglas & Leonard, and others get the business.
Under AG Phil McLaughlin, the sex abuse of David Meehan, Charles Glenn, and others at YDC was covered up by his office and by his successors: Peter Heed, Kelly Ayotte, Michael Delaney, Joseph Foster, and Gordon MacDonald.
It is extremely likely that Nixon Peabody had a role in the self-described “narrative” for Edward Arsenault published on 4th March 2014 by the Diocese. The “narrative” conveniently omits Edward Arsenault’s development of a business relationship with David Vicinanzo in 2002, leading to Arsenault personally sorting out 250 claims against the Diocese filed largely by Chuck Douglas and Peter Hutchins of Wiggin & Nourie, where MaryAnn Dempsey is an insurance coverage attorney. She also happens to be General Counsel for New Hampshire’s Judicial Branch, while Meredith Cook (a relation of Bradford Cook, I believe), who also works at Wiggin & Nourie, is the “Chancellor” for the Diocese, listed on the same page as the investigator, Julie Curtin.
Ovide LaMontagne at Divine Millimet law firm had called AG Phil McLaughlin, essentially egging on an investigation for the Catholic Institution his law firm represented.
“Lamontagne, who later began representing the church legally, declined to confirm McLaughlin’s account or comment at all, citing attorney-client privilege, leaving it unclear how Lamontagne knew about the church abuse or how long he’d been aware of it.
But armed with this new information, McLaughlin acted instantly, calling Arsenault into a meeting at Lamontagne’s Manchester law office. “
Lamontagne wouldn’t confirm the AG’s account, having called the AG to trigger the investigation of the Diocese & Edward Arsenault wouldn’t confirm the validity of any of the claims against the Diocese.
To see how entangled Lamontagne, Arsenault, Nixon Peabody, David Vicinanzo, and Gordon MacDonald were in 2003 — see this:
AG Michael Delaney’s resignation as Attorney General when after Edward Arsenault’s fraud upon the Diocese was being discovered in Spring 2013 looks like it might be tied to fear of the AG’s office getting exposed for collusion with Arsenault & the Diocese attorneys back in 2002 when Delaney worked under Phil McLaughlin.
Delaney would have been fully aware of the scam in the Diocese cases and the cover-ups of YDC abuse. He withdrew from consideration for the First Circuit in 2023 after a letter was received by the US Senate Judiciary Committee from a State Witness/Complainant in the high-profile trial of Owen Labrie of St Paul’s School. The letter stated that Michael Delaney had tampered with State witnesses before they gave testimony. One of those witnesses, Andrew Thomson, had a deal made for him per the prosecutor’s statements to Judge Larry Smukler. Thomson’s mother, Lucy Hodder, was on the board of the NH Charitable Foundation, legal counsel to Governor Maggie Hassan, and on the board of St Paul’s Board of Trustees. The NHCADSV’s Amanda Grady Sexton knew about the tampering because she was the messenger to the prosecutor in the courtroom, according to the statement provided to the US Senate Judiciary Committee. She had a duty as a public official for the City of Concord. If she knew there was felony witness tampering in a criminal trial, it would have been her duty to report it to the judge, given she was attending the trial as a public official. She did not. Jane Young attended the trial, too, and also said nothing.
“Jim Rosenberg, who, with Will Delker, the head of the criminal division, undertook the inquiry, said that McLaughlin was the architect of the approach that eschewed criminal proceedings against the church hierarchy in favor of full disclosure and a commitment to cooperate with law enforcement. Rosenberg said that the outcome was preferable to what could have been expected from criminal proceedings. Noting that McLaughlin assembled a coalition of victim advocates and law enforcement officials, he stressed that “creative remedies were achieved by Phil’s leadership.”
“Victim advocates” in New Hampshire means the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, who get kickbacks from the attorneys who sue institutions and the state. They train the police and supply the victims to the attorneys, and then train the victims and the prosecutors. They control the media for all. They are supposed to provide training to prevent sexual assault in the state’s facilities and in schools, but the primary interest is in lawsuits and settlements.
Access to the Diocese, St Paul’s School, and Phillips Exeter Academy records is what feeds the lawsuit and settlement machine. The NHCADSV is the “victim advocacy” front to gain access to the records. Julie Curtin is the informant who fabricates, hides, and manipulates anything to please the people who pay her, whether it is the AG, the PD, the NHCADSV, Nixon Peabody, Divine Millimet, or Shaheen & Gordon.
