Greenwich Mother Wins $638K in Sadomasochism Case Involving Her Disabled Daughter

A Greenwich woman has won nearly $638,000 in damages from a Greenwich man she claimed had a sadomasochistic sexual relationship with her disabled and mentally ill daughter.

The jury returned the verdict Thursday in favor of Mary Kortner, who claimed her daughter, Caroline Kendall Kortner, was unable to consent to an abusive sexual relationship with Craig Martise, a married father of four, because of her mental state, according to NBC Connecticut.

In 2010 Caroline Kendall Kortner died from an undisclosed illness at age 39 in 2010, seven years after her relationship with Martise that began after they met online years earlier. Throughout her life, Kendall struggled with a severe eating disorder and other psychological issues, which required repeated hospitalizations. During her lifetime, she was diagnosed with clinical depression, borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and periodic dystonia and catatonia, according to court documents. In 1994, at the recommendation of one of the physicians treating Kendall for her eating disorder, Mary Kortner filed an application to be appointed as the conservator of Kendall’s person.

In May 2001, Kendall suffered a stroke and after more than a year of hospitalizations and rehabilitation returned to her apartment, according to court document. Sometime in late December, 2002, the defendant and Kendall began talking on the telephone.

After several requests by the defendant, in February, 2003, the defendant and Kendall met for the first time at her apartment. At first, the defendant and Kendall developed a platonic relationship—the defendant helped her with the computer, and they would watch movies and talk. Eventually, their relationship became sexual and developed into a sadomasochistic sexual relationship, according to documents.

Martise had maintained the relationship was consensual and that he did nothing wrong. A jury found in his favor in 2009, but the state Supreme Court overturned the verdict in June, ruling a court clerk did not follow procedure and allowed that jury to review evidence that was not admitted in court, according to the Supreme Court’s decision.

Martise and his lawyer didn’t immediately return messages Tuesday.

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