Former resident of East End boys group home files sex abuse lawsuit

A sex abuse lawsuit has been filed against an East End group home for boys. 
Andres Alexander Ramos, a former resident of Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch in Riverhead, says he was beaten, burned with cigarettes and brutally raped by older boys at the group home nearly 25 years ago.

The ranch offers a group home retreat center to help ‘at risk young people’ using ‘Christ-centered’ values, where Andres Alexander Ramos says he was placed in 1995 at 12 years old.

He says he was the youngest child there.

The lawsuit against the organization claims staff looked the other way and allowed the abuse to happen.

Ramos says, “There was so supervision after lights out. No one was there.”
He says the abuse began just two days into his six-month stay at the facility when he was targeted by a 17-year-old housemate.
“He would tell me to get on my knees and tell me to do sexual favors to him, and he would direct me to do it to the other boys,” he says.
Executive Director Thaddaeus Hill says safety has always been a top priority at the ranch, though did not comment specifically on the allegations.
Hill told News 12, “It's a 24/7 supervised facility, so there's around the clock supervision.”

The lawsuit was filed under the Child Victims Act, a new state law that gives alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse a one year window to sue, regardless of their current age.

Ramos says he hopes that he will inspire others to come forward and tell their story.

“I think that by me speaking the truth, I think is going to help other people,” he says.