A former resident of Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch has brought a lawsuit against the organization and people affiliated with it claiming he was sexually assaulted and abused while in the custody of the Riverhead facility in 1995.
Andres Alexander Ramos, now 36, was 12 years old when he was forcibly raped by a 16-year-old resident, an incident that led to Ramos’ hospitalization for “massive internal injuries and extensive bleeding” and, subsequently, a police report resulting in his attacker being criminally charged, according to the complaint.
Ramos, who lived at the ranch for six months from January to June 1995, alleges in the complaint that he was repeatedly sexually abused by the boy who raped him as well as by other other teenage boys at the Middle Road facility.
The complaint accuses staff at the ranch of mounting a “victim-blaming cover-up,” disposing physical evidence of the rape and convincing Ramos that the abuse was “a justified punishment from God for which he had to accept some responsibility.” Staff members and Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch founders Jerrell and Fern Hill “constructed a narrative” that Ramos “had asked for the sexual assault,” according to the complaint. They also negligently allowed the abuse to take place, violating mandated child abuse reporting laws and failing to prevent further emotional and physical injury to Ramos, the complaint states.
A representative of the ranch did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in State Supreme Court in Suffolk County, pursuant to the Child Victims Act, a state law that took effect in August that revives sexual abuse actions previously time-barred under New York law. The Child Victims Act opened a one-year window, beginning Aug. 14, when any adult survivor of child sexual abuse can file a civil lawsuit against their abuser — including public and private institutions — no matter how long ago the abuse took place.
Ramos also alleges that older residents repeatedly beat and victimized him with acts that included dangling him by his feet from the second story of a barn on the ranch’s 66-acre property on Middle Road.
The complaint seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
The action was brought by the law firm of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz of New York City. It was first reported today by the Riverhead News-Review.
Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch was founded in 1976 by Jerrell and Fern Hill in memory of their late son, Timothy, who was struck by a car and killed while riding a bicycle in Riverhead. Jerrell Hill is a Christian minister and the mission of the ranch is stated as using “Christ-centered values” to restore “abused and neglected boys.”
Children are sent to the ranch by judges, the probation department and social services agencies.
Today, the organization provides residential services in group homes for boys and girls ages 10 to 17, according to its website. It also operates a transitional program for young men ages 18-24. It also operates “retreat centers” in Tennessee and Massachusetts.
Ramos v. Timothy Hill Childrens Ranch Et Al by RiverheadLOCAL on Scribd
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