Jan. 13—A Hillsborough County jury found a former Youth Development Center worker guilty Monday morning on charges of sexually assaulting two teenage boys while working the night shift in the 1990s.
Stanley Watson is the second former YDC worker to be found guilty on charges connected to a sweeping investigation into abuse at the former juvenile detention facility in the 1990s and 2000s.
The jury found Watson, 55, of Allenstown, guilty on three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. The assaults occurred between April 24, 1997, and Jan. 4, 1998, according to the indictments. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 6.
The trial lasted three days in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester with the jury deliberating Friday afternoon and returning Monday before reaching the verdict.
“We are grateful for the jury’s service and for the hard work of our trial team. This conviction is an important step toward justice, and we will continue our efforts on behalf of all YDC victims,” Attorney General John M. Formella said in a statement.
In November, another former YDC worker, Bradley Asbury, was found guilty of aggravated felonious sexual assault (accomplice). He is set to be sentenced on Jan. 27.
In the Watson case, prosecutors presented evidence of assaults against two different teenage boys at the time, one living in Stark House and the other in Spaulding Cottage.
“The person meant to watch over them to keep them safe was instead their predator,” prosecutor Nicholas Chong Yen said during opening statements.
The then-27-year-old counselor gave the two teenagers gifts of food and granted special privileges and became to the boys “the one adult who gave them attention and appeared to care for them in a place where just living your everyday life was a struggle,” Chong Yen said.
Watson has admitted to having sex with both boys after they aged out of YDC at 17. The sex was a continuation of the sexual abuse, Chong Yen said.
Watson’s defense attorney, William Korman, said the post-YDC sexual encounters were consensual.
He also claimed financial motivation on the part of the two victims, who are plaintiffs in lawsuits filed against the state seeking monetary damages.
The two victims are among more than 1,300 to file lawsuits alleging abuse at YDC over the course of decades. The first to file a lawsuit, David Meehan, went to trial last year and legal questions still linger over a $38 million jury award. Others have chosen to settle with the state.