WATERBURY – Four community theaters have agreed to pay settlements to three young women who were sexually assaulted when they were teenagers by a man working as a director.
The Naugatuck Teen Theater, Landmark Community Theatre in Thomaston, Warner Theatre in Torrington and the Thomaston Opera House all agreed to pay settlements to end lawsuits filed against them in state Superior Court in Waterbury.
“The matter was settled to the mutual satisfaction of the parties and the terms are confidential,” said Bridgeport attorney Jason Tremont whose firm represented the three women.
The lawyers for the theaters declined comment.
In March Daniel Checovetes, who worked as a director at the theaters in the early 2000s, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting the then-teenage girls.
His arrest and conviction were the result of a civil lawsuit filed after local police discontinued their investigations with no finding of probable cause.
“He raped me in the Thomaston Opera House,” one of the victims told the judge at Checovetes’ sentencing hearing.
“He took my virginity. He was violent, choked and grabbed me and slapped me. I had bruises on my breasts. I thought this was normal and how it was supposed to be. He wanted me to take birth control. I was vulnerable. I was a child,” said a second woman at the hearing.
In 2009, the three young women were 14, 16 and 17 respectively. Two were aspiring actresses and singers. The third wanted to be a theater lighting specialist. They enrolled in the Naugatuck Teen Theater, a youth program in Naugatuck open to all seventh- through 12th-grade students from surrounding communities, according to the lawsuit.
The women claimed in the suit that Checovetes first had contact and interactions with the victims through their participation and performance in teen and community theater. The assaults took place between 2009 and 2016 at the theaters or performance spaces as well as other locations.
The lawsuit also claims that, prior to the abuse of the victims, the theaters were aware that some of their employees were arrested and convicted for possession of child pornography.
Checovetes had worked his way up from various theater jobs to become stage manager and director at Thomaston Opera House, which is operated by Landmark Community Theatre. He was fired in May 2018, officials said.
Southington police say they received the first complaint in 2017 but did not establish probable cause for an arrest. Southington police met with the complainant on Dec. 28, 2017 and told her there was no probable cause to pursue charges, according to a warrant for Checovetes’ arrest.
Police officials later admitted they mishandled the cases and only reopened their investigations after the lawsuits were filed.
Tremont previously the expressed surprise when during a deposition in the lawsuit case Checovetes admitted sexually assaulting two of the women in 2015 and 2016.
“As a practicing attorney for over 30 years who handles sex abuse cases for minor victims, it is highly unusual for a perpetrator to admit to having sexual relations with minors — usually they deny it or plead the Fifth,” Tremont said.