Attorneys defending the state of New Hampshire on Thursday began highlighting the past misdeeds

BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — Attorneys defending the state of New Hampshire on Thursday began highlighting the past misdeeds of man who says he suffered horrific physical and sexual abuse as a teenager at the state’s youth detention center. Eleven former state workers have been arrested since the state launched an unprecedented criminal investigation into the Sununu Youth Services Center in 2019, and more than 1,100 former residents have sued the state alleging six decades of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The first lawsuit went to trial this week, highlighting an unusual dynamic in which the attorney general’s office is both prosecuting alleged perpetrators and defending the state against allegations raised in the civil cases.