New Trial Set For Therapist With Prison Past Accused Of Sexual Assault

By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH

Bonnie Sitomer thought she’s been through the worst already.

She reported her then-therapist, Peter Stone, for his alleged sexual abuse. She spent a seeming lifetime in the early months of 2021 telling police detectives and prosecutors about the alleged abuse. She had to explain to strangers her own broken behavior, like her alcoholism, that Stone allegedly preyed on as her therapist.

But the idea that Stone would finally face justice for his actions kept her going. That was more than five years ago. Stone is currently a free man, and he’s yet to go to trial.

And he's a free man with a past, having been convicted of the widely publicized manslaughter death of Lacey Packer, 10, in October of 1989, when as then-named Peter Dushame, Stone drove drunk into a motorcycle where she was a passenger that was parked off the F.E. Turnpike in Nashua.

“If I even knew it would be like this ... now I know why people don't pursue it,” Sitomer said.

It’s been more than 10 years since the alleged abuse took place. Sitomer, 64, went to police in February of 2021 to report what had happened while she was Stone’s patient in 2016. By the summer of 2021, Stone was arrested on several counts of Aggravated Felonious Sexual Assault, and indicted by a grand jury that same September.

But then things started to slow down.

Stone, 69, whose original last name was Peter Dushame, resides in Maine and reportedly suffers from medical issues which complicate his travel to the Carroll County Superior Court in Ossipee. His attorney, John Bresaw, did not respond to InDepthNH.org on Wednesday.

As the case started to make slow progress through the court, Stone’s legal team raised competency questions in early 2022. What followed was a lengthy process of evaluations and hearings, not always held on schedule, that further pushed the case back until 2025.

Once Stone was deemed competent to stand trial, a scheduled trial was cancelled for plea negotiations to resolve the case. Under the terms of the agreement reached in December of 2025, Stone would plead guilty to two counts and receive no jail time. Instead, prosecutors would drop a majority of the charges and allow Stone to get a 10-year suspended sentence.

But when Stone was set to formally enter into the agreement by pleading guilty and accepting responsibility for the alleged crimes during a January hearing, he couldn’t do that. Stone reportedly blamed Sitomer for the alleged sexual assaults when questioned by a judge. That put the case back on track for a trial, which was supposed to start this month. That hasn’t happened.

The case is now pending on concerns about Stone’s ability to travel from Maine to the court for his trial, and still receive his necessary medical care. On Wednesday, Bresaw was supposed to present a judge with a plan to get Stone to court at a scheduled hearing, but Sitomer told InDepthNH.org that didn’t happen, either.

Sitomer made the hour trip to Ossipee on Wednesday for what she understood to be an open hearing, only to see the prosecutor, Carroll County Attorney Keith Blair and Bresaw go to the judge's chambers for a conference, at the end of which Bresaw was again instructed to come up with a plan to get Stone to court.

“I'm just so upset. We're in year six, there's been dozens of hearings,” Sitomer said. “My rights are meaningless next to his. I have no right for anything.”

This seems to be the first felony case for Peter Stone, but not for Peter Dushame, Stone’s original name. By the time he was 33, Dushame notched five drunk driving arrests, and had been involved in two fatal car accidents. But the final straw was the third. In October of 1989, a drunk Dushame drove his car into a motorcycle that was parked off the F.E. Turnpike in Nashua.

Gordon Packer and his 10-year-old daughter, Lacey Packer, were on their way home from a Toys for Tots event when they were hit by Dushame's car. Lacey Parker died two days later.

Sitomer had no idea about Stone’s past when she became his patient in 2013 in North Conway. She told InDepthNH.org she would not have started sessions with him had she known. The case was the impetus for a 2024 law change that makes it harder for convicted felons to change their names.

Sitomer told InDepthNH.org she does not want revenge or retribution. She does not want Stone unjustly punished. She wants him to face a jury so they can decide his guilt or innocence. It's been 10 years since the alleged abuse happened. And five years since Sitomer went to the police.

“I just want a trial,” Sitomer said.

Peter Stone remains a free man.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.