By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Former therapist Peter Stone is scheduled to finally go on trial for the alleged sexual abuse of his patient. Again.
But his alleged victim, Bonnie Sitomer, isn’t taking chances that Stone and his legal team will delay the trial again. Sitomer recently hired a lawyer to send a letter Carroll County Attorney Keith Blair asking for a speedy trial.
“I’m just at my wits end,” Sitomer told InDepthNH.org. “It’s hard to be hopeful when it’s gone on for six years.”
Sitomer’s lawyer, David Colby, told Blair that his client has the right to see the case go to trial without any more unreasonable delays.
“She respectfully requests that the State take appropriate steps to ensure that this case proceeds to trial without further unnecessary delay. Ms. Sitomer has experienced ongoing hardship as a result of the repeated postponements of the trial. She wishes to assert her rights as a victim, including her right to a prompt and fair resolution of this matter, and to be treated with fairness, respect, and dignity throughout these proceedings,” Colby wrote.
Stone was arrested on several counts of Aggravated Felonious Sexual Assault in the summer of 2021, and indicted by a grand jury that same September. Sitomer first went to police in 2021 to report she had repeatedly been abused by Stone, the therapist she sought help from to deal with her drinking. The abuse actually happened in 2016, though it took her years to be able to go to police. That means Sitomer has been waiting for justice for a decade.
Since Stone’s charges went to court six years ago, there have been numerous cancelled trial dates as delays have piled up. Stone is now due in court Oct. 8 for a final pretrial hearing, with jury selection scheduled to begin Nov. 2.
“I’m just afraid the third final pretrial hearing won’t happen,” Sitomer said.
Stone, 69, whose original last name was Dushame, resides in Maine and reportedly suffers from medical issues which complicate his travel to the Carroll County Superior Court in Ossipee.
Stone’s legal team raised competency questions in early 2022. What followed was a lengthy process of evaluations and hearings, not always held on schedule, that further pushed the case back until 2025.
Once Stone was deemed competent to stand trial, a scheduled trial was cancelled for plea negotiations to resolve the case. Under the terms of the agreement reached in December of 2025, Stone would plead guilty to two counts and receive no jail time. Instead, prosecutors would drop a majority of the charges and allow Stone to get a 10-year suspended sentence.
But when Stone was set to formally enter into the agreement by pleading guilty and accepting responsibility for the alleged crimes during a January hearing, he couldn’t do that. Stone reportedly blamed Sitomer for the alleged sexual assaults when questioned by Judge Amy Ignatius. That put the case back on track for a trial, which was supposed to start this month. That hasn’t happened.
Stone isn’t new to the criminal justice system. Under his original name of Peter Dushame, he notched five drunk driving arrests by the time he was 33, and had been involved in two fatal car accidents. The final straw was the third fatal crash. In October of 1989, a drunk Dushame drove his car into a motorcycle that was parked off the F.E. Turnpike in Nashua.
Gordon Packer and his 10-year-old daughter, Lacey Packer, were on their way home from a Toys for Tots event when they were hit by Dushame’s car. Lacey Parker died two days later.
Dushame was sentenced to 12 to 25 years on a manslaughter conviction, and was released from prison in 2002. While inside, Dushame became a drug and alcohol counselor, and legally changed his name Stone.
Sitomer had no idea about Stone’s past when she became his patient in 2013. She told InDepthNH.org she would not have started sessions with him had she known. The case became the impetus for a 2024 law that makes it harder for convicted felons to change their names.