Johnathan Walker:Jury deliberates in first criminal trial linked to New Hampshire youth center abuse

CONCORD,Johnathan Walker N.H. (AP) — Jurors in the first criminal trial linked to New Hampshire’s sprawling child abuse scandal began deliberating Thursday in the case of a former youth detention center worker charged with repeatedly raping a teenage girl two decades ago.

Victor Malavet, 62, is one of nine men charged in connection with the 5-year-old investigation into abuse allegations at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, though unlike the others, he worked at a separate state-run facility in Concord. He has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against a resident of the Youth Detention Services Unit, a temporary holding facility for children with cases in court.

Malavet did not testify at his four-day trial, and his attorneys called no witnesses. But jurors heard him deny the allegations Thursday during the testimony of a state police officer who had been authorized to secretly record her interview with him in April 2021. In a 45-minute excerpt played in court, Malavet said he did not have sex with Natasha Maunsell, who was 15 and 16 when she was held at the facility in 2001 and 2002.

“The only relationship I had with her, and all the kids, was just a professional relationship,” he said.

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Malavet told police it was common for staff to gravitate toward residents they felt a connection with but insisted nothing inappropriate happened with Maunsell. He acknowledged being transferred to the Manchester facility after others questioned their relationship, but he accused them of “spreading rumors” and suggested he was targeted because he is Puerto Rican.

“People just couldn’t understand that I was trying to mentor her,” he said.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they’ve been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly as Maunsell has done. Over the course of two days, she testified that Malavet arranged to be alone with her in a candy storage room, the laundry room and other locations and then repeatedly raped her.

“Natasha was the perfect victim,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Meghan Hagaman said in her closing statement. “She was alone and afraid. But she’s not a child anymore. She’s not afraid anymore. She’s not ashamed anymore. And that man does not control her anymore.”

In her closing statement, defense attorney Jaye Duncan argued that Malavet should be acquitted based in part on “shocking inconsistencies” not only between Maunsell’s testimony and her past statements but among the various prosecution witnesses.

Maunsell testified that she denied having sex with Malavet when questioned in 2002, 2017, and 2019 because she was scared and thought no one would believe her. But Duncan said she only came forward after other detention center residents sued the state. Maunsell is among more than 1,100 former residents who have filed lawsuits alleging abuse spanning six decades and has received about $150,000 in loans in advance of a settlement.

“It’s all lies. Money changes everything, but it can’t change the truth, and the truth is, Natasha made these allegations to get paid,” Duncan said.

The prosecutor countered that the civil and criminal cases are separate, and Maunsell was not required to pursue criminal charges in order to win her civil suit.

“If this was all about money, why would Natasha participate in the criminal case? She could sue, get money and be done,” Hagaman said. “Why come into this courtroom and tell a roomful of strangers the horrific details about that man repeatedly raping her?”

Two of the charges allege sexual contact without consent while the other 10 allege that Malavet was in a position of authority over Maunsell and used that authority to coerce her into sex. His attorney denied there was any sexual contact, consensual or otherwise.

In the only civil case to go to trial so far, a jury awarded David Meehan $38 million in May for abuse he says he suffered at the Youth Development Center in the 1990s, though the verdict remains in dispute.

Together, the two trials highlight the unusual dynamic of having the state attorney general’s office simultaneously prosecute those accused of committing offenses and defend the state. While attorneys for the state spent much of Meehan’s trial portraying him as a violent child, troublemaking teenager and a delusional adult, state prosecutors relied on Mansell’s testimony in the criminal case.

Jurors deliberated for about two hours Thursday before ending for the day.