Youths at Timothy Hill Children's Ranch can leave, judge rules

The youths who lived at a group home for boys in Riverhead on a Suffolk County Supreme Court justice’s orders are no longer required to stay there, that same justice ruled this week.

Justice Fernando Camacho issued the ruling Tuesday, more than a week after a former resident at Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch filed a lawsuit against the facility claiming he was sexually abused by several older teens when he was a boy living there nearly 25 years ago.

Camacho, the justice who presides over juvenile offenders at Suffolk County Supreme Court, ruled “that the young men that were going to Timothy Hill in those cases in front of him did not have to return to Timothy Hill,” Mary Porter, public information officer for the John P. Cohalan Court Complex in Central Islip, said Thursday.

Camacho’s ruling will affect at least eight youths who were included in cases he was presiding over, Porter said.

“The court’s ruling is simply that anyone who chooses not to stay at Timothy Hill will not be penalized,” Porter said. She did not comment on whether other arrangements would be available for those youths.

On whether the lawsuit filed by Andres Alex Ramos against the group home, which alleged that Ramos was beaten and raped by several older teens while he stayed there as a 12-year-old, had any influence in Camacho’s decision, Porter said that Camacho “does not preside over that case and cannot comment on cases that are or will be handled by the courts.”

Ramos’ lawsuit is scheduled to be heard by another judge on Nov. 6, both Porter and Ramos’ attorney said. It asks for unspecified damages from the ranch, which manages the residential group home for children ages 10-17 who have struggled with issues of abuse, neglect, homelessness and addiction. 

Representatives at the Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch did not immediately return requests for comment.

Regina Calcaterra, the attorney representing Ramos, said Thursday that while she would not speculate whether the ruling came as a result of their case, she and her client “were pleased that the allegations at Timothy Hill are receiving scrutiny and that the courts are taking notice of what we believe to be a persistent practice [of abuse] that has occurred over decades.”

Since the news of her client’s lawsuit broke, Calcaterra said her office had heard from other potential victims.

Calcaterra said Ramos has suffered from “decades of PTSD” because of his alleged abuse, and her client wanted to see “that anyone who has responsibility for taking care of children protect them.”