The “Trauma-Informed” Consultants Behind the Lucrative Sexual Abuse Investigations in New Hampshire

After reading “Vatican Bans Publishing Lists of ‘Credibly’ Accused Priests,” a veteran researcher spells out the ties and connections among the players.

April 3, 2025 by Claire Best, Los Angeles, CA

The Diocese of Manchester list of accused priests should be studied as an example of how flawed these lists are.

Not included in the list of accused or convicted priests is Father Francis Talbot who was convicted and died in prison and who had worked at the Youth Detention Center. That is significant given the fact that the State of New Hampshire has over 1300 cases of child sex abuse claims against it currently. Sex abuse that allegedly took place at the Youth Detention Center where Father Francis Talbot had worked. Ironically, the State lumps within the definition of a Child Placement Agency as being the Department of Children Youth & Families (DCYF), Catholic Charities and their successors.

Nixon Peabody and Divine Millimet law firms represent Catholic Charities and the Diocese. Nixon Peabody is one of the law firms suing the State for the alleged victims of the Youth Detention Center abuse. Nixon Peabody also sorted out the quick settlements for the Diocese for the alleged priest sex abuse.

The list of “credibly” accused priests was published in July 2019 which is after the first victim of child sex abuse at the YDC came forward and an investigation had begun. Coincidentally, Nixon Peabody’s Attorney David Vicinanzo, had sent a letter to the Clerk of Merrimack County DA’s office earlier in 2019, asking for the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation Report on St Paul’s School to remain private. He represented a number of “intervenors” (faculty and administrators) at the school who did not want their names made public. He also represented “pro bono”, the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence (NHCADSV) who lobbied his former partner from Nixon Peabody, then Attorney General (and now Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court), Gordon MacDonald, for the investigation.

And they got a contract with the school out of it, replete with an “independent compliance officer” and “trauma informed” training. The NHCADSV had hired Brian Harlow of SNAP to join them in 2012 to expand their business. Harlow was the first alleged victim to be solicited by Jim Rosenberg of prior AG Phil McLaughlin’s office to come forward for the Diocese investigation in 2002 which led to the list of “credibly” accused priests being created. Brian Harlow and the NHCADSV endorsed Gordon MacDonald for the NH Supreme Court.

MacDonald had once asked Father Gordon MacRae if he would mind having his name used for two claims against the Diocese (which were false) for a quick settlement. MacDonald was upset with Dorothy Rabinowitz of the WSJ when she published the names of these false claimants. He said there had been an nondisclosure agreement (NDA) but she pointed out that Father Gordon MacRae was not a party to any NDA.

Years later, Gordon MacDonald hired for the St Paul’s School investigation James F McLaughlin. He was the police detective who in 1992 had framed MacRae while investigating priests of the Diocese of Manchester. During the St Paul’s School investigation, James F McLaughlin’s name was added to the list of corrupt police officers but MacDonald failed to reveal this. Then he argued to keep the list private. Eventually McLaughlin’s name slipped out and he had multiple closed-door hearings to get his name removed from the list. These meetings involved not only the AG’s office but also a lawyer for the NH Banking Commission. Journalists and others have only received heavily redacted copies of his disciplinary records but he was known to his own police department as dishonest in the 1980s — well before he framed Father Gordon MacRae, and that the State of New Hampshire ignored the Brady v Maryland 1963 Supreme Court ruling which requires the State to provide exculpatory evidence to a defendant.

In 1998, McLaughlin’s name appeared in a Federal Entrapment case in which he was “the Government” who sexualized minors under 12 years old. (US v Paul Gamache). And yet he was hired by the NH AG’s office for the Diocese investigation and the St Paul’s School investigation. I discovered from Right To Know emails received from the AG’s office that the Attorney General knew there was a conflict of interests between the police department and prosecutor’s office and the Attorney General’s office in the investigation into St Paul’s School in September 2017. But it failed to let the public know this.

One wonders what it knew in the Diocese investigation in 2002 and what it failed to reveal to the public and Diocese. Jim Rosenberg now works for Shaheen & Gordon lawfirm. He represented Andrew Thomson, a State witness who the prosecutor admitted had been given a deal in the Owen Labrie trial which preceded and laid the land for the St Paul’s investigation. That deal was sealed in the trial and when it was revealed months later, the prosecutor retracted her words and the school’s attorney (a former AG of course) said no such deal had been made.

Shaheen & Gordon are allegedly the law firm paying Julie Curtin who is one of the “trauma informed “ investigators for the Diocese of Manchester and on its site. Curtin was the principal police detective in the Owen Labrie and St Paul’s investigations. She lied on a sworn affidavit for his arrest warrant (revealed by a SANE nurse in trial under oath) and she had also tampered with evidence — providing a redacted Facebook post. The prosecutor was taken by surprise when the full unredacted post was supplied by the defense — she’d never seen it before. It was exculpatory.

The DOJ no longer funds “Start by Believing” and “trauma informed” training that had been adopted in New Hampshire. SNAP got caught out for a kick back scheme with lawyers. It had to apologize to a priest in another state for framing him using media. The NHCADSV appears to have taken over where SNAP left off and gets kick backs from settlements brought by attorneys it refers complainants to. Bishop Accountability is an interesting site — I noticed articles have been removed from it which are inconvenient for the AG and US Attorney for New Hampshire and Jim Rosenberg relating to St Paul’s School and the Owen Labrie case.

I am informed that there was some internal discord at Shaheen & Gordon over the revenue they expect to get from the claims against the Yourh Detention Center. Coincidentally, they threatened me with a defamation suit in 2021 for statements I had made about their client, the NHCADSV, being involved in a “Kids for Cash” type scheme. It’s not defamation if it is true.

And if the Vatican could do one thing that would help Catholic and Episcopalian institutions around the world who have become subjected to these media fueled witch hunts, it would be to stand up and call out the profiteering and racketeering that has been going on with these law firms, victims advocacy groups and the police, prosecutors and media they are in business with. All these people did was create sensationalist headlines and then set out to create evidence out of no evidence and hide evidence that was exculpatory. Follow the money and look at the lawfirms and non-profits and see how they got rich.

A New Hampshire Ponzi Scheme Uncovered?

In September 2023 Claire Best wrote an article about how corruption drove the case against Fr Gordon MacRae in 1994 and St Paul’s School student Owen Labrie in 2014.

May 29, 2024 By Claire Best

The first civil lawsuit in over a thousand cases of alleged child sexual assault and other abuse brought by victims of the New Hampshire Youth Detention Center against the state has just concluded. A civil jury awarded David Meehan, the plaintiff, $38 million dollars. The attorney for the State, Brandon Chase for DCYF — the NH Division for Children, Youth and Families — quickly responded that it was only going to pay out $475,000 due to a cap for each incident and since only one box was filled by the jury, the State has interpreted that as only one incident.

Over the weekend, the attorneys for David Meehan filed a motion for an emergency hearing with the judge regarding the discrepancy. They included emails from jurors who had contacted them after the jurors saw the state’s announcement about the cap on WMUR — the local news station.

The jurors had been given instructions by the judge, not the attorneys. They would have also been briefed on what they could and could not do as jurors. One of the Frequently Asked Questions paragraphs on the State’s website for jurors is “When can I discuss the case?” The answer is: “As soon as the verdict is over you can discuss it with anyone except the attorneys and interested parties.”

David Vicinanzo and Russ Rilee were the lead attorneys for David Meehan. Vicinanzo is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and a former Federal Prosecutor. He is also a partner at Nixon Peabody which is the law firm of former New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald who is now the New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Attorneys Gordon MacDonald and David Vicinanzo previously represented the Diocese of Manchester when it shelled out millions for alleged abuse by priests following the framing of Father Gordon MacRae by Police Officer James F McLaughlin. He first went after the priest with a bogus story given to him by Sylvia Gale who worked with DCYF which has now been found liable for $38 million for wanton abuse in the 90s — concurrent with the timing of Father Gordon MacRae’s trial and failed appeal.

Gordon MacDonald’s application to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, where he now presides as Chief Justice, fails to mention the fact that he is still listed at Nixon Peabody as agent for a company managed by former NH Senator Gordon Humphrey who he designated as a referee.

Another referee is Justice John T. Broderick — the man who denied Father Gordon MacRae’s appeal in 1996.

Justice Broderick is overseeing the settlement payouts for claims against the Youth Detention Center from a $100 million fund established by the State for that purpose. He has been on a book tour with a volume he wrote about mental health which he claims was overlooked when his son attacked him with a guitar one night (landing the son in prison for several years).

Gordon MacDonald has been on the tour with him. The same names come up again and again in a close knit “club” whose members are the same now as they were thirty years ago. David Vicinanzo and Russ Rilee are apparently very happy that Justice Broderick is overseeing the claim settlements for the Youth Detention Center Cases. $66 million has been paid out thus far. Keeping a lower profile but getting fast settlements is their other pal from the Diocese days: Chuck Douglas Esq. Chuck Douglas is also Chair of the New Hampshire Judicial Selection Committee.

Meanwhile, Brandon Chase who is acting as attorney for the State and DCYF against Vicinanzo and Rilee, is also listed as one of the attorneys in the closed door hearings for former Detective James F McLaughlin and his fight as “John Doe vs Keene Police et al” to keep his list of crimes hidden from public view on the State’s Laurie List of officers with credibility issues.

Keeping it in the family is a must for this crowd. Blowing the lid on it all is a must for the public or anyone that cares about true justice as opposed to fake justice.

Lobbying by non-profits and financially interested parties has led the State’s Executive Council to release federal funds under the guise of training for police, prosecutors, victim specialists. But in fact, there is a clear pattern that demonstrates it is being released for self-dealing or gaming the system by this clique.

There is no doubt that abusive conduct by public officials — to whom children and young adults have been referred by state agencies who publicly advertise to be looking after their best interests — is the norm, not the exception and has been for decades.

The AG’s office has been criticized for its conflict of interests in the YDC cases but what is coming to light now is the way in which the self-dealing happens that enables bribery, extortion, abuse and cover ups.

I was shocked to find out that Joelle Wiggin, the “victim specialist“ for David Meehan and employed by Nixon Peabody for this purpose, went straight from working for the State and the NHCADSV — the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence — to working for the law firm.

Between the law firm and the victims’ advocates/NHCADSV, up to 55% of each settlement will be taken before the plaintiffs see a cent. The NHCADSV and Nixon Peabody managed to get the state to free up funds to train the victims’ specialists, to train the investigators, to pay for the pretrial publicity, to lift the statute of limitations for civil claims.

Polish it off with a touch of David Vicinanzo who has all bases covered between Gordon MacDonald on the Supreme Court and Vicinanzo's son who clerked for the First Circuit Judge (who was N.H. Attorney General during the time of David Meehan’s alleged abuse at YDC). Matthew Vicinanzo is currently an Assistant US Attorney under Jane Young who was Assistant Attorney General under Gordon MacDonald.

Nobody, among the powers that be in the courts, can point me to the Statute or laws that allow self-dealing by Lobbyists using public funds, police, prosecutors, media. That’s because there aren’t any.

The NHCADSV has published a guide on pretrial publicity. It’s a practice that James F McLaughlin knew in the 1980’s as he used the Keene Sentinel newspaper as his ally. One of McLaughlin’s 1988 police reports actually revealed that “Paul Montgomery, a Keene Sentinel reporter, is assisting in this investigation as a private citizen. He said that he would see what information he could find about the subject.” The “subject” referred to was Father Gordon MacRae. The Keene Sentinel did not publish an article about McLaughlin’s federal entrapment in 1995, ruled on as such by the First Circuit in 1998.

David Vicinanzo, Gordon MacDonald, the Diocese of Manchester and U.S. Attorney Jane Young are completely unbothered by all this. Just as they were not bothered by the fraud perpetrated by former Monsignor Edward Arsenault in 2014.

If everyone is in on the get rich quick game, there is little incentive to find justice, to find the truth, or to do what is right. The money is just too good.

Coincidentally, one of New Hampshire’s Supreme Court Justices who has served on the Governor’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Committee alongside members of the NHCADSV, has just been recused from an unrelated case before the Supreme Court. No reason was given but it happened after I questioned the Judicial Conduct Committee about financial disclosures for Barbara Hantz Marconi and Gordon MacDonald in relationship to their personal interest in their respective law firms. Did Gordon MacDonald refer victims of YDC abuse to the NHCADSV due to his own interest in Nixon Peabody, their “pro bono” legal counsel?

“Pro bono” is short for “Pro bono publico” — for the public good.

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Editor’s Note: We thank Claire Best for being this week’s Voice from Beyond. Thank you for reading and sharing this post. Please consider these related posts:

To Fleece the Flock: Trauma-Informed Consultants Are Here

Betrayed by Victims’ Advocates

Grand Jury, St Paul’s School and the Diocese of Manchester

New Hampshire Corruption Drove the Fr. Gordon MacRae Case

Weapons of Mass Destruction