A mistrial was declared Tuesday in the first criminal trial linked to New Hampshire’s sprawling child abuse scandal after a jury deadlocked in the case of a former youth detention facility staffer charged with raping a teenage girl.

Victor Malavet, 62, was one of nine men charged in the 5-year-old investigation into abuse allegations at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, though unlike the others, he worked at a separate state-run facility in Concord.

After a four-day trial and roughly 11 hours of deliberations over three days, jurors said they were deadlocked on the 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, and the judge declared a mistrial.

Malavet was accused of assaulting a resident of the youth detention services unit, where children were held awaiting court disposition of their cases.

Natasha Maunsell, who was 15 and 16 when she was held at the facility in 2001 and 2002, testified that Malavet frequently arranged to be alone with her in a candy storage room, the laundry room and other locations and repeatedly raped her.

Malavet’s attorneys argued that Maunsell made up the allegations to get money from a lawsuit.

Malavet did not testify, and his attorneys called no witnesses in his defense. But jurors heard him deny the allegations Thursday during the testimony of a state police officer who had been authorized to secretly record her interview with him in April 2021.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they’ve been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Maunsell has done. She is among more than 1,100 former residents of youth facilities who are suing the state over abuse allegations abuse spanning six decades.

After surviving the Titanic, Richard Beckwith sought peace and quiet. He found it by constructing 58 Wiggin Farm Road on Squam Lake, in the picturesque town of Moultonborough, N.H.

The summer property is listed for $9,500,000.

Beckwith, his wife, and teenage daughter were passengers on the Titanic, but made it into the lifeboats. Some claim their story was potentially a source of inspiration for the famed 1997 film “Titanic.” Legend has it that the family was aboard the ship in an attempt to get the teen away from a potential boyfriend, The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story on the listing, reported. Ultimately, the boyfriend found himself on the lifeboat as well, and the parents had a change of heart. 

“Some newspaper accounts, filed just after the survivors reached New York, claimed that Behr had proposed to Helen while they were still in their lifeboat,” the Journal wrote, adding that the couple later married with the Beckwith parents’ blessing.

These days, the eight-bed, 3.5-bath property, which was built in 1899, is a shingled home on the market for the first time in more than a century. Set on just under 4 acres and boasting 964 feet of shorefront, the home measures 5,605 square feet.

A long drive through the woods leads to the luxury property, which welcomes guests up a few steps onto the wraparound porch, which has screened-in sections. The entrance leads into a welcoming living room, home to a three-sided white brick fireplace under beautiful wooden beams.

But it’s the view that strikes you upon entrance. 

“When you walk into the house, you’re just immediately drawn to the views of the lake,” said Joe Dussault of Dussault Real Estate, who is the co-listing agent with Jacalyn Dussault. “These long lake views [see] across to the Squam Range. And if the sun were going down, you would have views of beautiful sunrises and sunsets.”

Wood floors run throughout the home, which features many original elements, including the door handles and windows. The dining room also has a share of the three-sided fireplace in the corner. From there, a walk-through pantry leads into the kitchen, which blends original rustic features with more modern white appliances. It also has a second pantry for additional storage. There’s a small parlor on the first floor with access to a half-bath, as well as Palladian doors that open to the screened-in porch. 

A staircase from the living room leads to the second floor, which is home to eight bedrooms and three bathrooms, each with claw-foot tubs. The primary suite boasts stunning views of the outdoors on three sides. All of the bedrooms have beadboard walls and ceilings, which emphasize the rustic nature of the home. 

A staircase leads up to the partially finished third floor, and there is a small unfinished basement.

There’s a 555-square-foot boathouse on the property with dock space on both sides, as well as a few other small structures: a former ice house, a pump house, and an old chicken coop. There’s also a two-car detached garage. A sandy swimming area and a large dock make it easy to go for a swim. The home could potentially be winterized for year-round use. 

If the property gets its $9,500,000 asking price, it would be the highest ever paid for a home on Squam Lake, Dussault told the WSJ.

Jacalyn Dussault emphasized the tranquility of Squam Lake, thanks to its protection by conservation easements in comparison to other bodies of water in the region.

Kamala Harris speaks to the New Hamsphire Institute of Politics during the 2020 presidential primary.

Poll after poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris locked in a margin-of-error wrestling match with former President Donald Trump over the seven swing states that will pick the next president.

And none of those states are New Hampshire.

Which is why political observes in New Hampshire and nationwide are scratching their heads over Harris’s decision to take one of the 63 campaign days she has left and spend it in Portsmouth this Wednesday. Veteran campaign insiders from both sides of the aisle told NHJournal they didn’t understand the decision and could only offer speculation. Speculation, they conceded, that didn’t entirely make sense.

The media advisory from the campaign simply says the vice president “will travel to the Greater Portsmouth area for a campaign event.”

The post from Marisa Nahem, who handles communications for the Harris campaign in New Hampshire, reads: “Kamala Harris is coming to NH & she’ll be greeted by amazing energy!”

What veteran political reporter Mark Halperin reads into all this is that something is up for Harris in New Hampshire.

“Kamala Harris to New Hampshire is very interesting,” Halperin posted on Twitter. “If the reason is not because Democratic internal [polls] show the race close, I’m eager to hear the alternate explanation. Endorsing a House candidate in a primary? Raising money from a Seacoast billionaire?”

So, is Harris coming to shore up her support in the Granite State? “Maybe it’s for insurance,” one Democrat told NHJournal on background.

But public polls show New Hampshire is, as it has been in seven of the previous eight presidential elections, a safe Democratic state. The Cook Political Report shifted the state from “leans Democrat” to “likely Democrat” after the party pushed out President Joe Biden and replaced him with Harris.

Recent polling by both St. Anselm and the University of New Hampshire’ gives Harris an eight-point lead over Trump. And two additional sources confirmed to NHJournal that their private polling has also found a solid Harris lead.

And then there’s an email sent by Massachusetts Trump staffer — or rather, former staffer — Tom Mountain, declaring “the campaign has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state.”

According to reporting by The Boston Globe, Mountain said was “sure to lose by an even higher margin” in New Hampshire than in 2016 and 2020, citing “campaign data/research.”

“We’re off the map,” one New Hampshire GOP source familiar with the state of the Trump campaign told NHJournal.

So, why is Harris coming here?

Some New Hampshire political operatives speculate the visit may be to repair relationships from the First in the Nation presidential primary fiasco, when Biden directed the Democratic National Committee to strip the Granite State of its place on the primary calendar. They note potential 2028 candidates like Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) made Labor Day weekend appearances in New Hampshire.

“It’s September. You don’t burn a candidate’s time like that in an uncompetitive state unless someone is writing her a $5 million check,” one national political pro told NHJournal. “The First in the Nation primary can wait until January.”

Fundraising appears to be the most likely answer. Several campaign professionals in both parties said it’s very possible Harris is coming to the Boston area for a big-dollar event and a quick trip to Portsmouth will get media coverage in Maine and New Hampshire. Not exactly Michigan, Nevada, or North Carolina, but not entirely wasted, either.

“You can make bank in Massachusetts and dip your toe in New Hampshire-Maine in less than 8 hours combined,” one Massachusetts GOP source noted.

Interestingly, Harris is coming just days before the primary that will determine the Democratic ticket in November. If she delayed her trip a week, she’d be able to appear with the nominees for governor and the Second Congressional District. Does that mean an endorsement in one of those races might be on the agenda this Wednesday?

“There is no way,” one longtime New Hampshire Democratic operative told NHJournal.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign insists that New Hampshire is on the board and the Harris team knows it.

“President Trump’s campaign maintains an on-the-ground presence in New Hampshire, including staff and offices, while Kamala Harris is parachuting in because she knows that the Granite State is in play,” campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes told the Boston Globe.