By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
A teen girl was repeatedly raped by the care giver who was paid by the state, and the state employees who were supposed to oversee her case repeatedly covered for the abusers, according to a new lawsuit filed in Merrimack Superior Court.
The girl, now a 58-year-old woman, claims she was continuously raped by Saddleback Mountain Retreat owner Peter Tsetsilas, impregnated by one of Tsetsilas’ relatives, and pressured to drop her abuse claims by her Department of Health and Human Services caseworkers.
“Ms. [Sue] Clark tried to discourage Plaintiff from reporting the abuse by Peter. Ms. Clark pulled Plaintiff aside and told Plaintiff that everyone believed she had lied and that she needed to go back into the room and tell the police officer that she lied and retract her statements. Ms. Clark told Plaintiff that she was ruining a good family,” the lawsuit states.
A different state caseworker even told the girl her pregnancy wasn’t real, despite the fact she would go on to give birth, according to the lawsuit. At the time, the girl had told her caseworkers she had been impregnated by Peter Tsetsilas’s relative after his frequent rapes.
“Plaintiff was repeatedly told by State workers that she was lying about being pregnant and about who the father was. The State agents assigned to care for Plaintiff pressured Plaintiff not to pursue her disclosures, even after she gave birth to the child,” the lawsuit states.
New Hampshire Department of Justice Communications Director Michael Garrity said the state is aware of the lawsuit.
“We will review the complaint and respond in court as appropriate,” Garrity said.
The woman, who has been identified as L.O., was abused by Peter Tsetsilas and his relative in the 1980s, according to her lawsuit. Many of the details in her complaint are similar to the facts in the Kristy Gesse lawsuit, and in fact L.O. was a witness during Gesse’s trial held this summer.
L.O. is being represented by many of the same attorneys who represented Gesse, including Rus Rilee, as well as lawyers for Nixon Peabody like David Vicinanzo, Daniel Deane, Mark Knights, Nathan Warecki and others.
The Gesse jury returned a verdict stating the evidence proved Gesse had been raped by Peter Tsetsilas more than 100 times starting with her stay at Saddleback in the 1990s. Gesse ended up being kidnapped by Peter Tsetsilas and held in Concord Hotels where she was used as a sex slave until her rescue.
Gesse was awarded $16 million by the jury, though the total award is now under dispute. Of that $16 million, Peter Tsetsilas, his wife, Beverly Tsetsilas, and the Saddleback business are responsible for $12 million. The State of New Hampshire, which placed Gesse at Saddleback despite knowing about L.O.’s accusations, and allegedly acting to cover up for Peter Tsetsilas, is responsible for $4 million. Both Peter and Beverly Tsetsilas are now dead, and Saddleback is a defunct business.
Gesse is appealing that verdict to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, as is the State. Lawyers for New Hampshire argue the state should not pay anything.
L.O.’s story is like a lot of the stories told by people abused in State care. She was taken out of a home where she was being abused by her adoptive parents, and placed in several abusive facilities by DHHS administrators before landing at Saddleback.
At Saddleback, L.O. was put on birth control by Beverly Tsetsilas in her first week, according to the lawsuit. Soon after that, Peter Tsetsilas began grooming her for sex. He would get her drunk to “relax” her, show her favoritism, and apply psychological pressure. Peter Tsetsilas repeatedly told L.O. she would end up at the Sununu Youth Development Center if she did not let him rape her.
“Be a good girl, do what I need you to do,” he reportedly told her.
At one point, Peter Tsetsilas suggested he could “protect” L.O. from a YDC placement by hiding her in a remote cabin owned by a friend.
For her part, Beverly Tsetsilas made it clear to L.O. that she would be put in a locked facility like YDC if she ever told anyone about the abuse, according to the lawsuit.
“The threat of re-institutionalization was reinforced by Beverly, who took Plaintiff to visit other facilities, including the Berkshires and Easter Seals, to demonstrate where Plaintiff could be sent. Beverly made comments throughout Plaintiff’s placement that alluded to the sexual assaults, but blamed Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.
L.O. told her caseworker about the abuse, but instead of helping the child the caseworker scheduled a move several weeks out, according to the lawsuit. At the new group home L.O.’s diaries detailing the abuse were discovered by an adult and police were called, according to the lawsuit. But the investigation was dropped after DHHS employees pressured L.O. to stay silent.
Eventually, L.O. was placed in an independent living apartment in Manchester, but she wasn’t free from Peter Tsetsilas. He showed up in Manchester with his male relative, and essentially gave L.O. to the man, according to the lawsuit.
The relative used the threat of having L.O. locked up as pressure to yield to his frequent rapes, according to the lawsuit. L.O. was only able to escape the nightmare by aging out of the system. By then she had endured hundreds of rapes and assaults, and was pregnant by one abuser.
L.O. joins approximately 300 other adult survivors of abuse who were held at a group home contracted by the State. Gesse is the first of the group home victims to get a jury trial.
The broader YDC abuse scandal involves approximately 1,500 survivors who were abused inside State run facilities. Of those victims, only one has had a trial. David Meehan was awarded $38 million in 2024, but the State is refusing to pay. That dispute had gone to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which has not yet issued a ruling despite hearing the case almost a full year ago.