Former New Hampshire youth detention center worker dies awaiting trial on sexual assault charges

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy at New Hampshire’s youth detention center decades ago has died while awaiting trial, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Gordon Thomas Searles, 68, died Sunday, said attorney Joseph Fricano. He said he did not know the cause of death and that his client had been looking forward to his day in court.

“I hope everyone on both sides can be at peace,” he said.

Searles was one of 11 former state workers arrested after the state launched an unprecedented criminal investigation into the Sununu Youth Services Center 2019, though charges against one of the men were dropped earlier this year after he was found incompetent to stand trial.

Searles, who faced three charges of aggravated felonious sexual assault involving a teenage boy between October 1995 and July 1998, also was accused in dozens of lawsuits, most of which alleged physical assault. One lawsuit accused him of sitting on a teen’s back while another staffer raped him, beating the boy multiple times per week and frequently choking him unconscious.

More than 1,100 former residents have sued the state since 2020 alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse spanning six decades. In the first case to go to trial, a jury awarded $38 million in May to David Meehan, who said he was beaten and raped hundreds of times. But the verdict remains in dispute as the state seeks to impose a $475,000 cap on damages.

The first criminal trial, which involves a man accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl a dozen times at a pretrial facility in Concord, is set to begin Aug. 26.