CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The first legal case linked to Contemporary Hampshire’s sprawling youngster abuse scandal resulted in a mistrial Tuesday after a jury deadlocked on charges against a dilapidated early life detention facility staffer accused of raping a teenage girl in 2001.
Victor Malavet looks in the help of him all over his trial at Merrimack County Superior Court docket in Harmony, N.H., on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. Malavet, a dilapidated disclose worker is charged in connection with the attorney traditional’s probe of the Sununu Childhood Services Center in Manchester. (David Lane/Union Leader by skill of AP, Pool)
Victor Malavet, 62, is one in every of 9 males charged in the 5-one year-used investigation into abuse allegations at the Sununu Childhood Services Center in Manchester, despite the truth that unlike the others, he worked at a separate disclose-glide facility in Harmony.
After roughly 11 hours of deliberations over three days, jurors acknowledged they were deadlocked on the 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault.
Jurors had indicated they were deadlocked two hours earlier, however Divulge Dan St. Hilaire advised them to proceed. He declared a mistrial after receiving a disclose from the jury stating: “After extra time with thoughtful deliberation, we are restful unable to reach to a unanimous choice on any charges.”
Throughout the four-day trial, Natasha Maunsell, who became as soon as 15 and 16 when she became as soon as held at the energy in 2001 and 2002, testified that Malavet normally arranged to be alone along with her in a candy storage room, the laundry room and other areas and many instances raped her.
“I be aware having this intestine-wrenching feeling that this is on no yarn going to live. This is on no yarn going to quit, and it’s going to proceed the the same come every time,” she testified.
Malavet did not testify, and his attorneys known as no witnesses in his defense. However jurors heard him disclose the allegations Thursday all over the testimony of a disclose police officer who had been authorized to secretly report her interview with him in April 2021.
“The entirely relationship I had along with her, and all of the young folks, became as soon as trusty a reliable relationship,” he acknowledged.
Malavet’s attorneys argued that Maunsell made up the allegations in repeat to score money from a lawsuit. Maunsell is among more than 1,100 dilapidated residents who’ve filed fits alleging abuse spanning six decades and has obtained about $150,000 in loans in advance of a settlement.
“It’s all lies. Money adjustments all the pieces, however it would possibly well seemingly’t swap the truth,” defense attorney Jaye Duncan acknowledged in her closing argument.
Either aspect declined to comment after the mistrial became as soon as declared. The suppose acknowledged a standing conference would possibly well seemingly be held sooner than the trial is rescheduled. In an announcement, Attorney Standard John Formella known as the fruits disappointing however acknowledged his place of job stays committed to prosecuting abusers.
Within the entirely civil case to switch to trial to this level, a jury awarded David Meehan $38 million in Could also for abuse he says he suffered at the Childhood Kind Center in the Nineties, despite the truth that the decision stays in dispute.
Together, the two trials highlight the uncommon dynamic of having the disclose attorney traditional’s place of job concurrently prosecute those accused of committing offenses and defend the disclose. While attorneys for the disclose spent grand of Meehan’s trial portraying him as a violent youngster, troublemaking teenager and a delusional grownup, disclose prosecutors relied on Mansell’s testimony in the legal case.
The Associated Press does no longer most steadily name folks who verbalize they’ve been sexually assaulted except they reach forward publicly as Maunsell has done.
Throughout the trial, Maunsell acknowledged that she denied having been sexually assaulted when requested in 2002, 2017 and 2019. She acknowledged she lied the first time because she became as soon as restful at the energy and feared retaliation, and again in the later years because she didn’t suppose anybody would suppose her.
“It had been goodbye that I didn’t suppose any one would even care,” she acknowledged. “I didn’t suppose it would possibly well seemingly topic to anybody … so I saved it in for an extraordinarily prolonged time.”
