New Hampshire
Defense seeks to undermine accuser's credibility in New Hampshire youth center sex abuse case
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Lawyers for a man charged with raping a teenage girl at a youth holding facility in New Hampshire tried to erode the accuser’s credibility at trial Wednesday, suggesting she had a history of lying and changing her story.
Now 39, Natasha Maunsell was 15 and 16 when she was held at the Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord. Lawyers for Victor Malavet, 62, who faces 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, say she concocted the allegations in hopes of getting money from a civil lawsuit.
Testifying for a second day at Malavet’s trial, Maunsell acknowledged that she denied having been sexually assaulted when asked in 2002, 2017 and 2019. She said she lied the first time because she was still at the facility and feared retaliation, and again in the later years because she didn’t think anyone would believe her.
“It had been so long that I didn’t think anybody would even care,” she said. “I didn’t think it would matter to anyone … so I kept it in for a long time.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they have come forward publicly, as Maunsell has done. She is among more than 1,100 former residents of youth facilities who are suing the state alleging abuse that spanned six decades.
Malavet’s trial opened Monday. It is the first criminal trial arising from a five-year investigation into allegations of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, though unlike the other eight men facing charges, Malavet worked at a different state-run facility where children were held while awaiting court disposition of their cases.
Under questioning from defense lawyer Maya Dominguez, Maunsell acknowledged Wednesday that she lied at age 15 when she told a counselor she had a baby, and that in contrast to her trial testimony, she did not tell police in 2020 that Malavet had kissed her or that he had assaulted her in a storage closet. But she denied the lawyer’s claim that she appeared “angry or exasperated” when questioned about Malavet in 2002.
“I appeared scared,” she said after being shown a video clip from the interview. “I know me, and I looked at me, and I was scared.”
Maunsell also rebutted two attempts to portray her as a liar about money she received in advance of a possible settlement in her civil case. After Dominguez claimed she spent $65,000 on a Mustang, Maunsell said “mustang” was the name of another loan company. And when Dominguez showed her a traffic incident report listing her car as a 2021 Audi and not the 2012 Audi she testified about, Maunsell said the report referred to a newer rental car she was given after she crashed the older car.
In the only civil case to go to trial so far, a jury awarded David Meehan $38 million in May for abuse he says he suffered at the Youth Development Center in the 1990s, though the verdict remains in dispute.
Together, the two trials highlight the unusual dynamic of having the state attorney general’s office simultaneously prosecute those accused of committing offenses and defend the state. While attorneys for the state spent much of Meehan’s trial portraying him as a violent child, troublemaking teenager and a delusional adult, state prosecutors are relying on Mansell’s testimony in the criminal case.
New Hampshire
6th Highest Powerball Jackpot, $1.25 Billion, Expected On Wednesday Night, New Hampshire Lottery Says
CONCORD, NH — The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday night is expected to be the sixth largest in history, according to the New Hampshire Lottery.
The jackpot is expected to be $1.25 billion. The one-time cash payout should be around $572 million before taxes. No one has won the jackpot since Sept. 6, when winners who purchased tickets in Missouri and Texas split a $1.78 billion jackpot.
Top 10 Jackpots
- $2.04 Billion, Nov. 7, 2022
- $1.787 Billion, Sept. 6, 2025
- $1.765 Billion, Oct. 11, 2023
- $1.586 Billion, Jan. 13, 2016
- $1.326 Billion, April 6, 2024
- $1.25 Billion, Dec. 17, 2025 (anticipated)
- $1.08 Billion, July 19, 2023
- $842.4 Million, Jan. 1, 2024
- $768.4 Million, March 27, 2019
- $758.7 Million, Aug. 23, 2017
The odds of winning the jackpot are 292.2 million to 1. The odds of winning the $1 million prize — matching five numbers without the Powerball are 1 in 11.7 million.
Charlie McIntyre, the executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery, said last week, $2.4 million worth of tickets were sold in the state.
“We’ve gone a number of drawings without a winner, giving this Powerball jackpot plenty of time to rise to the sixth largest of all time,” said “There’s still time to make your holiday season brighter with a chance at this $1.25 billion prize — all you need is $2 to play.”
Revenue from the sales, he said, helps the commission “continue our daily mission to deliver the maximum amount of revenue to public schools in New Hampshire.”
Since 1964, more than $3 billion has been contributed to schools in the Granite State.
Deer have evolved to survive the stark winter months, with adaptations like a warm winter coat and stores of body fat they can use for extra energy. The animals also reduce their activity and food intake to conserve energy and migrate to a forested shelter called a deer yard, which can provide some protection from the elements.
“Although people may feel badly for deer and want to help, the Fish and Game Department would like to remind the public to never feed deer as it may actually harm them,” said Becky Fuda, the deer project leader at New Hampshire Fish and Game.
In 2015, 12 deer were found dead around a feeding site in South Hampton, after they were given food they could not digest, according to Fish and Game.
Microorganisms in the deer’s stomach help them to digest food. The natural diet of deer gradually changes with the seasons, and the microorganisms also change over the course of a few weeks to help them digest different foods.
But a sudden shift from a high-fiber woody diet to a high-carbohydrate diet offered by humans can disrupt the deer’s stomach chemistry, making deer less able to digest food, and releasing toxins.
And Fuda said feeding can have other negative consequences for deer, like increased risk of getting hit by a car and increased risk of disease transmission.
“Fish and Game strongly discourages the practice,” she said.
There are about 100,000 white-tailed deer in New Hampshire, according to an estimate from Fish and Game.
This story appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, a free newsletter focused on New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles elsewhere. To receive it via email Monday through Friday, sign up here.
Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
NASHUA, N.H. — An investigation into a September burglary involving the theft of $150,000 in jewelry from a store led to an arrest on Tuesday.
The Nashua Police identified the suspect as Nathan Ladue, 34, of Nashua, who was taken into custody on a felony warrant for receiving stolen property.
The case began on Sept. 28 when officers were called to a burglary report at Euddy Jewelry, located at 108 E. Hollis St. Police said that surveillance footage showed a white male driving a vehicle in the area that was registered to Ladue.
Detectives from the department’s Criminal Investigation Division obtained search warrants for Ladue’s vehicle and residence, which allegedly uncovered multiple pieces of stolen jewelry along with illegal drugs.
Ladue was subsequently arrested on a felony warrant on Tuesday.
He is charged with two counts of receiving stolen property, a Class A felony; two counts of possession of a controlled drug, a Class B felony; and receiving stolen property, a Class A misdemeanor.
Ladue was held without bail pending his arraignment at 9th Circuit Nashua District Court on Wednesday. The outcome of the hearing was not immediately available.
Police are asking anyone with information about the case to call the Nashua Police Department Crime Line at 603-589-1665.
Follow Aaron Curtis on X @aselahcurtis, or on Bluesky @aaronscurtis.bsky.social.
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