CONCORD, NH — Jurors in the first criminal trial involving the sprawling state of New Hampshire child abuse scandal Deliberations began on Thursday in the case of a former youth detention center employee accused of repeatedly raping a teenage girl twenty years ago.
Victor Malavet, 62, is one of them nine men charged in connection with the five-year-old investigation into allegations of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, even though he, unlike the others, worked at a separate state-run facility in Concord. He has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault against a resident of the Youth Detention Services Unit, a temporary holding facility for children with cases pending in court.
Malavet did not testify at his four-day trial periodand his attorneys called no witnesses. But jurors heard him deny the allegations Thursday during testimony from a state trooper who was allowed to secretly tape her interview with him in April 2021. In a 45-minute clip played in court, Malavet said he had not had 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 children was a professional relationship,” he said.
Malavet told police it was common for staff to be attracted to residents they felt a connection with, but he insisted nothing inappropriate had happened with Maunsell. He admitted he was transferred to the Manchester facility after others questioned their relationship, but accused them of “spreading rumours” and suggested he was targeted because he was Puerto Rican.
“People just couldn’t understand that I was trying to guide her,” he said.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Maunsell did. Over 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 scared. But she is no longer a child. She is no longer afraid. She is no longer ashamed. And that man no longer has control over her.”
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 earlier statements, but also between the prosecution’s various witnesses.
Maunsell testified that she denied having sex with Malavet when questioned in 2002, 2017 and 2019 because she was afraid and thought no one would believe her. But Duncan said she only came forward after other detention center residents sued the state. Maunsell is one of more than 1,100 former residents who lawsuits filed claims that abuse has been taking place for six decades and that approximately $150,000 in loans before a settlement is reached.
“It’s all lies. Money changes everything, but it can’t change the truth, and the truth is that Natasha made these allegations to get paid,” Duncan said.
The prosecutor countered that the civil and criminal cases are separate and that Maunsell did not need to file criminal charges to win her civil lawsuit.
“If it was all about money, why would Natasha participate in the criminal case? She could sue, get paid, and be done with it,” Hagaman said. “Why would you walk into this courtroom and tell a room full of strangers the horrific details about this man who raped her repeatedly?”
Two of the charges allege sexual contact without consent, while the other 10 allege that Malavet held a position of authority over Maunsell and used that authority to coerce her into sex. His attorney denied that there was any sexual contact, consensual or otherwise.
In the only civil case to come to court so far, jury awards David Meehan $38 million in May for abuse he claims he suffered in the 1990s at the Youth Development Center, although the verdict remains in dispute.
Together, the two trials highlight the unusual dynamic of the state attorney general’s office simultaneously prosecuting those accused of having committed crimes and defend the state. While attorneys for the state spent much of Meehan’s trial portraying him as a violent childa difficult teenager and a delusions of an adultprosecutors based their case on Mansell’s testimony in the criminal case.
Jurors deliberated for about two hours on Thursday before ending the hearing for the rest of the day.