New Hampshire settles second youth center abuse case for $4.5M

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire has agreed to pay $4.5 million to a woman who accused a youth detention center staffer of raping her in storage closet just before he handed out candy to other children as a reward for good behavior.

Natasha Maunsell, 39, was in her mid-teens when she was held at the Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord in 2001 and 2002. She sued the state in 2021, and her case was set to go to trial next month, but the parties reached a settlement, her lawyer said Wednesday.

The staffer she accused, Victor Malavet, was charged with 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against Maunsell after the state launched a broad criminal investigation in 2019. His second trial is scheduled for June after an earlier trial ended with a hung jury in September.

More than 1,300 people have sued the state since 2020 alleging that they were physically or sexually abused in state custody as children, most at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Only one case has gone to trial, resulting in a $38 million verdict, though the state is trying to slash it to $475,000. Another case recently was settled for $10 million.

Many alleged victims have submitted claims via an alternative state settlement fund where payouts are capped at $2.5 million, but roughly 800 cases are still pending in court.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they’ve been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Maunsell did.

“I think that strength can be derived from even the darkest moments, and I feel like anybody who has experienced what I have, they don’t need to be crippled by it,” she said in a 2021 interview. “They can certainly still have hope.”