A Chinese language-born lady has filed a lawsuit towards New Hampshire authorities businesses and her adoptive mother and father claiming they used her as a slave and subjected her to confinement and abuse for years.
The lawsuit was filed in New Boston, New Hampshire, final week and names Olivia Atkocaitis, 19, because the plaintiff and her mother and father, Thomas and Denise Atkocaitis, because the defendants.
Olivia was stored in a ‘dungeon’ and crushed, starved, and compelled to work for years, in line with the 70-page lawsuit which additionally names the New Boston police, a nonprofit Massachusetts adoption company, and the native college district.
That is the 8-by-8 foot room Olivia Atkocaitis was stored in inside the house’s ‘dungeon’
Thomas and Denise Atkocaitis have been arrested in 2018 on abuse prices
Olivia’s go well with claims the businesses cited ignored her scenario even after one among her siblings, one of many Atkocaitis’ organic youngsters, reported the abuse within the dwelling.
In 2011, one of many couple’s youngsters instructed a college counselor Olivia – who was eight on the time – had been whipped, starved, and pushed down the steps.
Olivia, the go well with states, was the one little one not permitted to go to high school.
Police have been despatched to the house and photographed the 8-by-8 foot room the place the lady was stored and the incident was reported to the Division for Youngsters, Youth and Households.
The couple’s teenager was faraway from the home however Olivia remained.
‘It didn’t supply the identical protections to Olivia, a youthful little one, a lady, a racial and ethnic minority, even after Thomas and Denise Atkocaitis admitted to police that they’d locked her in a basement dungeon,’ the lawsuit reads.
Denise Atkocatis in a Fb photograph
Thomas and Denise have been initially arrested and charged in 2018 after Olivia escaped.
On the time, authorities mentioned the New England couple locked the lady within the ‘dungeon’ room that was rigged with an alarm if she tried to flee.
The small room had lower than 100 sq. toes and one window that was coated with chicken-wire mesh.
Olivia was let loose solely to do chores for the household, together with caring for the animals on the property and cleansing their manure.
The lady was permitted to attend college for under someday and was compelled to make use of a bucket as a rest room, a undeniable fact that her siblings instructed college officers.
‘When Olivia tried to flee, as she did repeatedly as a toddler, native police hunted her down, reprimanded her for escaping, and returned her to servitude. Throughout her final effort at escape, the police used canines to trace her,’ the go well with states.
That is the New Boston, New Hampshire dwelling the place the alleged atrocities befell
The lawsuit, filed by Michael Lewis on behalf of Olivia, alleges the lady’s thirteenth Modification rights have been denied contained in the New Hampshire dwelling.
The thirteenth Modification was handed in 1865 and is most intently related to the Emancipation Proclamation and the abolishment of slavery.
‘Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, besides as a punishment for crime whereof the social gathering shall have been duly convicted, shall exist inside the USA, or anywhere topic to their jurisdiction,’ the Modification states.
It was this verbiage that led Lewis to file the go well with.
‘For my part, the state permitted slavery to exist in its jurisdiction, and the state did nothing about this,’ mentioned the lawyer.
The go well with, filed Monday within the Merrimack County Superior Courtroom, additionally alleges racism from the businesses listed.
In 2018, Denise pleaded responsible to a felony felony restraint and managed to keep away from jail time.
Thomas pleaded responsible to misdemeanor little one endangerment and acquired a minimal jail sentence, the lawsuit states.
Thomas purportedly moved to Maine whereas Denise moved to Georgia and their household dwelling the place the alleged atrocities befell was offered in October 2019.
Within the new go well with filed by Olivia and her lawyer, the pair blames Extensive Horizons for Youngsters who positioned her of their care.
Olivia was stored in a ‘dungeon’ and solely allowed out to do the household’s chores
Earlier than she had been positioned within the dwelling, officers had been instructed by one of many Atkocaitis’ organic youngsters that their father had crushed them with a belt.
Extensive Horizons did report this to the Division for Youngsters, Youth, and Households, the go well with claims, however the company by no means investigated.
After Olivia had been given to the Atkocaitises, the household was famous as ‘dedicated to their youngsters, and they’re elevating them in a loving, Christian dwelling, the place every little one is flourishing,’ in a post-placement investigation.
Olivia’s lawsuit is one among many filed in recent times claiming neglect by the Division of Youngsters, Youth, and Households.
‘We’re reviewing the submitting and can reply as applicable in courtroom within the bizarre course of litigation,’ mentioned Michael Garrity, a spokesman for Lawyer Normal John Formella, in an electronic mail to native media.