YDC abuse victim faces her past in the witness box on the second day of the Malavet criminal trial

By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – Natasha Maunsell walked into Merrimack County Superior Court Tuesday, swore an oath to tell the truth and then relived her past of alleged sexual abuse as a teenager incarcerated in a state facility.

Maunsell, 39, told her story to the 14 strangers on the jury, Judge Daniel St. Hilaire, hostile defense attorneys, a room full of spectators and Victor Malavet, 62, of Gilford, the former YDC employee who she claims sexually abused her in the early 2000s.

“I felt very threatened in the candy room for the first time [Malavet] pushed my head down to give him oral sex,” Maunsell said.

Malavet is accused of a dozen counts of aggravated sexual assault and is the first of nine alleged juvenile offenders to go on trial. His lawyers deny that Malavet abused Maunsell while she was incarcerated at the Concord Juvenile Correctional Facility.

Maunsell came forward to speak to investigators from the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office's YDC Task Force in 2020, as an avalanche of abuse allegations and evidence of decades-long cover-ups came to light.

But in telling her story this week, Maunsell must confront her lies and past wrongdoings while her defense attorney Mariana Dominguez sought to discredit her as the accuser.

Maunsell said she first lied to YDC staff in 2002 when she denied being sexually abused by Malavet. Maunsell testified she was too afraid to tell adults about Malavet's abuse.

“I was terrified. I can feel my fear and terror and I am that girl again,” Maunsell explained.

Dominguez forced Maunsell to explain to the jury why she was being held in the detention center. Maunsell was accused of attacking two staff members at another juvenile detention center, reportedly hitting them in the head with a lead pipe.

Maunsell told jurors she feared being sent to the YDSU detention centre after the attacks. It was the spring of 2001 and she was 15 at the time.

“I was very afraid for my life and of being back in juvenile detention,” she testified.

After the first few weeks in prison, Maunsell said, Malavet took a special interest in her. He talked to her, involved her in card games, and talked to her about the Bible and the Christian faith. But Malavet took advantage of the trust he had built with Maunsell to be alone with her and force her to perform oral sex before raping her, she testified.

“I didn't want what happened to me to happen. I felt like I had no control, no say,” she testified.

Malavet was investigated in 2002 after staff and other residents denounced his inappropriate behavior toward Maunsell. One staff member said he spent too much time with the teenager and was observed doing disturbing things, such as hand-feeding the girl. Former YDSU resident Viviana Rosario reported seeing the two making out when they thought they weren't seen.

Malavet was not charged in 2002 because Maunsell refused to acknowledge the abuse, but his superiors transferred him out of the unit.

Maunsell testified that she did not tell her father about the abuse until years later and generally did not tell anyone else. It was only when another former resident contacted her that she agreed to tell her story to a lawyer and investigators. Dominguez tried to suggest that Maunsell was making the allegations to enrich herself through her civil suit.

“They admit there is money to be won in a civil case,” Dominguez said.

When confronted with her past lies as a teenager, Maunsell testified that she is now telling the truth.

“I have no intention of manipulating the truth,” Maunsell said.

Maunsell is one of 1,300 YDC survivors suing the state for the alleged physical and sexual abuse they suffered and the cover-up of that abuse within the state agency. This year, the first civil trial of a former YDC resident who was incarcerated as a child ended with a jury awarding David Meehan $38 million in damages, though the state contends it should have been only $475,000.

The Attorney General's Task Force filed charges against 11 former YDC employees, all men, in 2021. There have been no new charges since then, although the lawsuits identified hundreds of named abusers who could still face trial.

Since the charges were brought, the alleged perpetrator Frank Davis is considered incapable of standing trial and Gordon Thomas Searles has died.

Maunsell is expected to return to the witness box on Wednesday.