A jury awarded $16 million to a woman Tuesday who was raped multiple times as a teenager while she was in a Deerfield group home sanctioned by the state. The jury found that Kristy Geese had suffered 106 different incidents of abuse while she was placed at Saddleback Mountain Retreat, a small group home for girls aged 6 to 18 that has since closed.
Jurors said the home’s directors, Peter Tsetsilas, who is deceased, and his wife Beverly Tsetsilas, were 70% “at fault” for Geese’s abuse. They found the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services was 25% at fault, according to the verdict form.
That breakdown means the state is responsible for a quarter of the award or $4 million. Geese’s attorney David Vicinanzo said Geese intends to appeal that breakdown and ask the state Supreme Court to find the state liable for the full amount because Geese was in its care.
“When the state takes on a fiduciary duty they have a non-delegable duty to take care of the kid,” he said.
Geese, who sued the state in 2023, was not eligible for the state’s Youth Development Settlement Fund because she was held at a different state sanctioned facility, not the Youth Detention Center. But the settlement fund’s new administrator cited the case earlier this month when he asked lawmakers to invest another $55 million into the settlement fund for former youth detention center residents.
The average payment is between $500,000 and $600,000. Risking a lawsuit and a much higher jury award was “very very scary,” retired circuit court judge Gerard Boyle told lawmakers.
Lawmakers gave Boyle $20 million and told him he could receive more money for the pending 1,700 claims if the state revenues improved.
The Division for Children, Youth and Families placed Geese at the facility in 1993 after she failed to register for school and was deemed a runaway. She was 16. Acting on a tip, the Concord police found Geese at a hotel, where she’d been for about a week, enduring multiple rapes by the director of the group home.
The state removed Geese and the other girls it had placed at the home, and temporarily closed the home. The home’s co-director, Peter Tsetsilas, pleaded guilty in 1994 to child endangerment and interference of custody but was not charged with rape or sexual assault, according to court records.
In a 2023 media interview, Geese said she didn’t report any of the physical and sexual abuse because Peter Tsetsilas had told her if she did, she’d be sent to the Youth Detention Center.
Following the verdict, Geese said in a statement: “Nothing can give me back what was lost, but knowing they are being held accountable feels like a heavy weight lifted. It took a long time to finally be heard, but that changed today. What happened to me should have never happened. And it should never happen to anyone ever again.”
The Attorney General’s office, which defended the state against Geese’s lawsuit, said in a statement that it respected the jury’s verdict and was determining its next steps. It did not say if it intends to appeal the verdict.
“It is significant that the jury recognized that the individual who committed the criminal acts bears most of the liability for the plaintiff’s damages,” the statement said.
“We extend our sympathies to the plaintiff and acknowledge the difficulties she endured in bringing this case,” the office said. “Our commitment to protecting vulnerable children and serving the people of New Hampshire remains unwavering.”
