Jury Faults New Hampshire in $16M Saddleback Group Home Rape Verdict

Concord, N.H. — A New Hampshire jury found the state’s child-welfare agency partly responsible for the repeated rape of a 14-year-old girl it placed in a state-contracted group home, awarding the survivor $16 million on June 30. The jury assigned the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services 25 percent of the fault, roughly $4 million, and placed the rest on the home’s operators.

The plaintiff, Kristy Gesse, was taken from her home at 14 and placed at Saddleback Mountain Retreat in Deerfield in late 1992. She was raped at least 106 times, her lawyers told the jury, both at the group home and at motels in Concord where she was kept drugged for weeks.

What the jury found

The verdict, returned June 30 at Merrimack Superior Court in Concord, apportioned fault among four parties: Peter Tsetsilas, 60 percent; the Department of Health and Human Services, 25 percent; Beverly Tsetsilas, 10 percent; and the now-defunct Saddleback home, 5 percent. Of the $16 million, the state is required to pay about $4 million; the remaining $12 million falls on the Tsetsilases and the home.

Gesse’s attorney, David Vicinanzo, told the jury the state bore direct responsibility for where it sent her.

“They knew that Tsetsilas was a predator, and they put Kristy into his custody.”

David Vicinanzo, attorney for Kristy Gesse

The state works to limit its share

Rather than accept the finding, the state has emphasized how little of the blame the jury assigned it. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said “the individual who committed the criminal acts bears most of the liability.” Vicinanzo said he expects to appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, arguing the state’s share of responsibility should be far greater than a quarter.

A child placed with a known danger

The core of the case is not what a private operator did, but what the state did when it handed a 14-year-old to him. New Hampshire removed Gesse from her home and chose a contracted group home as the safer option. A jury has now found the agency that made that choice was partly at fault for the years of rape that followed. A verdict that lets the state pay a quarter of the damages, and a state that points to the rapist to minimize its own role, is the system doing what it often does after a child is harmed in its care: treating accountability as something to be apportioned down rather than owned. Families confronting the same system can learn how its placements and oversight are supposed to work in this guide to the foster care system’s problems.

Key facts

• A New Hampshire jury awarded Kristy Gesse $16 million on June 30, 2026, over abuse she suffered as a child in a state-contracted group home.
• The jury assigned the Department of Health and Human Services 25 percent of the fault, about $4 million; Peter Tsetsilas 60 percent, Beverly Tsetsilas 10 percent, and the Saddleback home 5 percent.
• Gesse was taken from her home at 14 and placed at Saddleback Mountain Retreat in Deerfield in late 1992.
• She was raped at least 106 times, at the home and at Concord motels where she was kept drugged, her lawyers said.
• Her attorney, David Vicinanzo, said he expects to appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court to increase the state’s share of responsibility.
• The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said the person who committed the crimes bears most of the liability.

Sources

• InDepthNH — Jury Awards Saddleback Victim $16 Million for 106 Rapes (2026-06-30)
• New Hampshire Public Radio — Jury awards $16M to woman sexually abused at a group home where NH officials placed her (2026-06-30)
• NH Journal — Verdict in Saddleback Case Limits State Responsibility to 25 Percent, Victim to Appeal (2026-06-30)

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