Prosecutors dropped all charges earlier this month against one of the 11 individuals accused of abuse in the sprawling youth detention center case, citing a lack of evidence.

Trevor Middleton, 56, of Belmont, had been accused of sexually assaulting a child at the Youth Detention Center in Manchester between 1999 and 2001.

Prosecutor Meghan Hagaman dropped the two charges Middleton had faced – aggravated felonious sexual assault and felonious sexual assault – on Oct. 15.

“Upon further investigation, the State has determined it does not have sufficient evidence to proceed to trial,” Hagaman wrote.

The decision to drop the charges against Middleton came a month after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the first criminal case against a youth center employee to go to trial.

Michael Garrity, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, said the outcome in that trial “played no role” in prosecutors’ decision to drop charges in the Middleton case.

Garrity wrote in a statement that the criminal justice bureau of the attorney general’s office determined “based on addition information learned during the investigation” that it could “no long proved the charged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Middleton’s court-appointed attorney, Kirsten Wilson, did not respond to a request for comment.

Following the September trial, which also involved allegations from more than 20 years ago, a juror who declined to give her name told the Monitor that she “didn’t think there was enough evidence” presented.

That jury deliberated over the course of three days before the judge in the case accepted that the 12 members were deadlocked and declared a mistrial.

The outcome raised questions about the future of all the remaining cases against youth center employees and highlighted the challenges of trying cases that involve allegations from decades ago.

Since 2019, nearly 1,300 people have alleged in civil cases that they were physically or sexually abused while held in state-run youth facilities from 1960 to 2021.

The state has charged 11 employees with crimes, though one has since died and another has been found incompetent to stand trial. 

“It seemed pretty across the board that we all thought there should be more” evidence, the juror who answered questions about the September trial, said. She noted that the accuser, who testified during the trial, denied the allegations various times before coming forward for the first time in 2021.

Other members of the September jury declined to comment as they exited the Merrimack County courthouse.

The attorney general’s office has not said whether or not it plans to retry that case. Prosecutors requested contact information for jurors earlier this month and a court conference is scheduled for Dec. 19.

“Each case is continually evaluated on its own merits based on the facts and applicable law,” Garrity wrote. “In every criminal case, a prosecutor’s ethical obligations require that he or she only proceed with a criminal case if there continues to be sufficient evidence to prove the charged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Of the eight active cases against former youth center employees, six have trial dates scheduled, which range from Nov. 18 of this year to September 2025.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.