Questions Raised After CT Community Theaters Sued Over Sexual Abuse Allegations
Thomaston Opera House (Town Times News)
WARNING: The following article contains descriptions of the sexual abuse of minors.
The Connecticut local theater community was rocked this week by allegations of sexual misconduct by a man who had served as a director, designer and technical director for multiple theater organizations. The three victims of the alleged abuse filed lawsuits against not only their perpetrator, Dan Checovetes, but also the four area theaters.
The Hartford Courant reported,
“Three young women, who were ages 14, 16 and 17 when the alleged abuse occurred, accuse theater staff of failing to watch and supervise Checovetes, giving him free rein to abuse minors working on shows and plays. Checovetes is named as a defendant in the suits filed in Waterbury Superior Court, along with Landmark Community Theatre, Inc. of Thomaston, Naugatuck Teen Theater, LLC and Northwest Connecticut Association for the Arts and Warner Theatre of Torrington.”
According to the victims, the alleged abuse includes everything from inappropriate texting and emails to unwanted kissing and touching to rape. The incidents occurred not only in Mr. Checovetes’ home but also in his car and at the theaters. The lawsuit states that the abuse began going back over the previous decade.
The lawsuit accuses the four theaters of negligence for not doing anything to prevent sexual abuse from happening, nor having any polices to protect minors while on their premises. Through vicarious liability, the lawsuit contends that the theaters are just as responsible for the alleged abuse as Mr. Checovetes is.
The victims reported that the incidents have caused extreme distress resulting in PTSD, self-harm and other emotional anxieties.
As a result of these accusations, Mr. Checovetes was dismissed from his position as technical director at the Little Theater of Manchester(LTM) in Manchester, CT who put out the following statement:
“Mr. Checovetes has served as a paid independent contractor with the Little Theatre of Manchester since at least 2018 in a technical production capacity working with adult volunteers. Mr. Checovetes’ role did not directly put him in a position to oversee or to be alone with minors. Although there have been no allegations or observations of inappropriate behavior at LTM, we have decided to suspend our relationship with Mr. Checovetes indefinitely.
LTM takes allegations of this nature very seriously and prides itself on providing a safe and secure space for our staff, volunteers, artist, and creative personnel.”
Hard Questions That Need Answers
Back in the summer of 2018, I wrote a piece on this blog titled, “How Many Sex Offenders are in Your Community Theatre?” where I stated,
“While the vast majority of community theatre participants aren't registered sex offenders, some are. And when they go unchecked, the results can put not only others involved in a precarious situation but also put theatres in great liability risk.”
I wrote as a direct appeal to the area theaters that I knew, did not have policies in place to protect minors from potential abuse.
While I understand that no theater can predict that sexual abuse is going to occur on their property, it’s entirely reasonable to expect that they have policies to protect their casts and crews. I’m saddened to learn, according to the lawsuit, that no policies existed at Landmark Community Theatre, Naugatuck Teen Theatre, Warner Theatre, and Thomaston Opera House, especially since these theaters pride themselves on their teen and youth productions.
So why didn’t these theaters seem to have policies set up when it comes to adults working with minors? Policies in place could have resulted in grooming practices to have been reported. By not having such policies, theaters like these become open grounds for potential abuse.
The lawsuits also contend that these theaters have knowingly employed a registered sex offender, convicted of downloading nearly 1,000 images of child pornography to his computer and sharing some of them in Internet chat rooms. to work on their productions. Due to state laws protecting sex offenders, I cannot publish their name, but I can confirm that this individual has worked on productions with the Warner Theatre as recent as 2016 and at Landmark Community Theatre as recent as Jan 2019.
Why in the world, would you allow a registered sex offender to work on your productions? Even if the productions don’t have minors involved, that’s quite the roll of the dice and carelessness on the part of the theater, which is exactly what these young women are accusing these theaters of being.
And to be honest, while Little Theatre on Manchester dismissed Mr. Checovetes from their ranks and contend that no allegations occurred while he was on staff there, they’re not out of the woods yet.
Sources tell me that in 2018, one of the victims reported Mr. Checovetes’ alleged abuse to Landmark Community Theatre officials and he was dismissed. Around the same time, he had begun his paid work with Little Theatre of Manchester. Multiple sources confirmed to me that LTM was made aware of his dismissal from Landmark, but was not the reason why. It is unclear if Mr. Checovetes conveyed that to them or Landmark communicated that to LTM. Sources also confirm that LTM was made aware that Mr. Checovetes has violated Landmark’s policy of being along with minors, but it was described as a minor offense. Again, it’s unclear who conveyed that to LTM, Landmark or Mr. Checovetes himself.
So that brings up some serious questions:
In the interview process with LTM, did Mr. Checovetes notify them that he had been dismissed from Landmark Community Theatre or did Landmark communicate that to LTM?
Upon learning that he had been dismissed from Landmark Community Theatre, did officials at LTM inquire with officials at Landmark as to the cause or did they just accept Mr. Checovetes’ claim at face value?
Upon learning that he had violated apparent policies of being along with minors and describing it as a minor offense, did LTM reach out to Landmark Community Theatre to confirm this? And did Landmark convey it as a minor offense when, in fact, he was dismissed due to allegations of sexual misconduct?
Upon seeing that he had been hired by LTM, why didn’t anyone from Landmark Community Theatre reach out to LTM to notify them of the allegations and potentially protect others from further abuse?
I’m sorry if that’s dizzying, but that’s how bad this is.
I’m assuming from their actions that if LTM knew of the allegations against Mr. Checovetes, they would not have hired him. However, that information could have been discovered by either LTM doing their due diligence in the hiring process by contacting a previous employer who had dismissed him or by Landmark Community Theatre honestly conveying it to LTM.
While LTM states that “Mr. Checovetes’ role did not directly put him in a position to oversee or to be alone with minors,” that’s not saying he couldn’t have if he kept working there for years to come.
The other questions that need to be asked are who knew what and when? Were officials at these theaters notified of his behavior before 2018? And if theater officials did know, why was Mr. Checovetes allowed to continue working there.
While those questions may never be answered, the fact that there was a lack of policy to protect minors and the hiring of a registered sex offender to work on productions are egregious errors that fall on the leaderships of these theaters. I would hope that anyone who made such decisions will either resign their positions or be removed. Their lack of knowledge and common sense put their theaters at tremendous risk.
Because to me, through ignorance, favoritism, and carelessness, an alleged sex abuser was allowed to float from one area theater to another and nothing was done to stop it.
Going Forward
This is obviously a wake-up call to the entire CT local theater community that I hope generates discussions and results on how to prevent this from ever happening again. I do have some suggestions:
Every CT local theater(and beyond) to adopt sexual harassment policies and rules on interactions with minors written up by a third party resource with knowledge in this area.
Every CT local theater(and beyond) to follow a thorough process of hiring individuals for all of their productions.
Every CT local theater(and beyond) leadership official to attend training on sexual assault and harassment prevention.
Every CT local theater(and beyond)to follow a chain of protocol to report claims of sexual assault and/or harassment.
I would also encourage each theater involved to host a forum for their respective communities to openly discuss these issues.
Parents of these teenagers and children put their trust in the hands of the people running these theaters. If the theaters aren’t doing their work to protect them, disastrous consequences can occur, which is exactly what happened here. I think it’s awful what happened to these alleged victims and I hope they see justice served. But what angers me is that all of these could have been prevented if theaters were proactive in ensuring the safety in their spaces.
While three victims have come forward, I am fearful that more are going to come forward soon and that we may find out how far back these issues occurred.
I will be following up on this and any other additional information. Please contact me at onstageblog@gmail.com if you have any information you’d like to share. There will be additional pieces written on this.
UPDATE: (June 5, 2023) Dan Checovetes has been arrested on sexual assault charges after police said he admitted during a civil lawsuit deposition sexually assaulting two teenaged girls in 2015 and 2016.