First felony trial arising from New Hampshire youth detention middle abuse scandal begins

CONCORD, N.H. — The primary felony trial arising from a five-year investigation into allegations of abuse at New Hampshire’s youth detention middle begins Monday, although the case includes a distinct state-run facility.

Victor Malavet, 62, of Gilford, is considered one of nine former state workers charged in reference to the lawyer basic’s broad felony probe of the Sununu Youth Providers Heart. Expenses towards a tenth man have been dropped in Could after he was deemed incompetent to face trial, and one other died final month.

Whereas the others labored on the Manchester facility previously referred to as the Youth Growth Heart, Malavet labored on the Youth Detention Providers Unit in Harmony, the place youngsters have been held whereas awaiting court docket disposition of their instances. He’s charged with 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, all towards a 16-year-old woman held there in 2001.

Prosecutors say Malavet began paying particular consideration to the woman quickly after she arrived, treating her higher than different residents and giving her particular privileges.

“She was chosen to be the resident who would go to a sweet storage room to select sweet for the opposite residents,” Assistant Legal professional Common Timothy Sullivan mentioned at a court docket listening to shortly after Malavet’s arrest in 2021. As soon as contained in the closetlike room, she allegedly was coerced into intercourse.

Malavet was transferred to Manchester after different staffers reported “there was one thing occurring between the 2 of them,” Sullivan mentioned.

Malavet’s lawyer, Maya Dominguez, mentioned Friday that her shopper maintains his innocence and appears ahead to contesting the fees.

In line with court docket paperwork, Malavet’s accuser was transferred to the Harmony unit from Manchester after she assaulted a staffer with a steel pipe and escaped. Protection attorneys sought to current proof about that incident at his trial, saying he paid consideration to her as a result of she was handled poorly by different workers and residents due to it. He additionally wished to make use of that to undermine her declare of being coerced, in line with a decide’s ruling denying his request.

The decide did grant Malavet’s request to permit proof about her subsequent felony convictions, nevertheless, over the objection of prosecutors. After being tried as an grownup, the woman spent 10 years in jail for assaulting the Manchester staffer.

In a 2021 interview, the girl, now 39, mentioned she was too scared to report the abuse she suffered.

“I didn’t need it to worsen,” she advised The Related Press. “There was a whole lot of concern round reporting something. I noticed how different children have been being handled.”

She additionally mentioned she hoped to return to high school to finish a finance diploma.

“I feel that energy might be derived from even the darkest moments, and I really feel like anyone who has skilled what I’ve, they don’t must be crippled by it,” she mentioned. “They will definitely nonetheless have hope.”

The girl is amongst greater than 1,100 former residents who’re suing the state alleging abuse that spanned six a long time. Within the only case to go to trial to date, a jury awarded David Meehan $38 million for abuse he says he suffered on the Youth Growth Heart within the Nineteen Nineties, although the decision remains in dispute.

Collectively, the 2 trials spotlight the weird dynamic of getting the state lawyer basic’s workplace concurrently prosecuting alleged offenders and defending the state. Whereas prosecutors doubtless might be counting on the testimony of the previous youth middle residents within the felony trials, attorneys defending the state towards Meehan’s claims spent a lot of that trial portraying him as a violent child, troublemaking teenager and delusional adult.

The Related Press typically doesn’t title individuals who say they’re the sufferer of sexual abuse until they arrive ahead with their story publicly, as Meehan has performed.