Alleged victim in first YDC criminal trial testifies

The plaintiff in the first criminal trial in the YDC abuse scandal described being raped multiple times by a former government employee as a teenager in 2001. She told jurors, “I remember having this horrible feeling that this was never going to end.”

Natasha Maunsell testified for several hours on Tuesday in the much-publicized criminal trial against Victor Malavet, 62. It is the first criminal trial since the Attorney General’s Office announced a comprehensive investigation into allegations of child abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center, formerly the Youth Development Center (YDC).

Although Malavet was charged in connection with the state's criminal investigation into YDC, he is accused of committing crimes at the former Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord, a separate but similar facility.

Malavet's lawyers claim that Maunsell's story is a lie motivated by money. Maunsell is one of the more than a thousand people who have sued the state for damages over alleged child abuse in various juvenile facilities in New Hampshire.

Maunsell told the jury that Malavet, who worked as a youth counselor, paid her special attention at YDSU, discussed Bible passages with her and gave her high marks for her behavior.

Maunsell said one day, Malavet asked her to accompany him to a storage room to get candy for the other children being held at YDSU. It was in that storage room, Maunsell said, that Malavet raped her for the first time. Maunsell was 16 at the time.

“He pulls me towards him and starts kissing me and I pull away and that's when everything changed,” Maunsell said, adding, “That's when I realized what was happening.” Maunsell told jurors that Malavet then forced her to perform oral sex and then raped her vaginally.

Maunsell said she noticed a gunshot scar on Malavet's stomach during the attack.

Maunsell also described several other alleged rapes by Malavet in various areas of the youth correctional facility over a period of several months in 2001.

“I immediately went back to the lounge and sat with the other children. I did that every time after that,” said Maunsell.

In 2002, police questioned Maunsell as part of an investigation into whether Malavet had an inappropriate relationship with Maunsell.

“I was afraid of what would happen to me if I had told their staff what had happened to me and what had happened to me and what Victor [Malavet] to me,” she said. “Well, I had lied to her. And I said that Victor [Malavet] was a Christian brother.”

Maunsell says that after she lied to investigators, the next time she saw Malavet, he made the American Sign for “I love you” with his hand through the window of her cell and said “thank you.” Maunsell took this to mean that Malavet was grateful that she did not make accusations against him.

Maunsell told jurors she decided to contact law enforcement in 2020 after someone who was incarcerated with her at the YDC contacted her on Facebook about allegations of abuse there. The first civil lawsuits alleging abuse at the YDC were filed in January 2020.

During cross-examination, Malavet's lawyers emphasized that Maunsell first made her allegations to Rus Rilee, an attorney who represents the vast majority of alleged YDC victims in ongoing civil litigation. Rilee's name is on the defendant's witness list and could testify as a witness.

“Do you agree that there is money to be won in a civil lawsuit?” asked Malavet's lawyer Maya Dominguez, underscoring the defense's argument that Maunsell only changed her story when she saw an opportunity to benefit financially.

Earlier this year, the state was found civilly liable for allowing child abuse at the former youth development center in Manchester. A jury awarded David Meehan the historic sum of $38 millionthe first person to sue the state over child abuse allegations at the YDC, although this ruling still controversial.

Dominguez returned to the 2002 investigation in which Maunsell denied that Malavet had behaved inappropriately toward her, citing a transcript of an interview with Maunsell by a DHHS ombudsman in which the ombudsman assured Maunsell that she was there to make sure Maunsell was not mistreated and that her answers would not be shared with YDSU staff.

“At one point she asks you explicitly whether you and Victor [Malavet] ever kissed. And you denied it?” asked Dominguez. Maunsell replied, “Yes.”

Dominguez also highlighted the fact that Maunsell was frequently visited by her father and other family members at YDSU and that she had an attorney with whom she met privately.

Maunsell, now 39, testified that at some point in her adult life she confided in her father that she had lied to investigators in 2002 – but she could not say when.

Dominguez confronted Maunsell with a transcript of her 2020 interview with state police investigators. During the interview, investigators asked Maunsell if they could contact her father to corroborate her story. According to the transcript, Maunsell asked investigators if she could contact her father first.

“You wanted to warn him before [the police] talked to him?” asked Dominguez.

“Just because of the phone call, because of the fact that they called,” Maunsell replied.

Dominguez also rejected the suggestion that Malavet had special authority over Maunsell compared to other staff, pointing out that he had no supervisory authority and that there were other staff members who had singled out Maunsell for certain privileges.

Maunsell's testimony is scheduled to continue on Wednesday.