An Orange County equestrian center that also shelters neglected and abused animals has filed for bankruptcy protection, in part because of a lawsuit that claims an 11-year-old girl was repeatedly raped at the farm.
Helen Marie Simonsen Inc. petitioned U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains for Chapter 11 reorganization on July 22, declaring $418,770 in assets and $562,770 in liabilities.
The company operates My Saddle Brook Farm and Saddle Brook Farm Animal Rescue on 21-acres in Walden.
Helen King, the president, bought the property in 2006, the same year that Brook, the horse for which the farm was named, was rescued. Since then, according to its website, Saddle Brook has rehabilitated more than 50 horses, rescued 65 alpaca, and sheltered cats, chickens, dogs, emus, goats, llamas, rabbits, pigs and turkeys.
Saddle Brook also offers horse riding lessons, trail rides, workshops and day programs that use rescued horses.
The assets consist primarily of farm and equestrian equipment and animals, including 11 horses that are either lame, dangerous, unrideable or blind; 15 to 30 years old, and valued from $0 to $2,500.
The primary liability is a $562,769 private mortgage that is listed as disputed.
The only other listed claim concerns a pending lawsuit filed in Bronx Superior Court in 2020 by the parents of a girl who attended Saddle Brook programs in 2019.
The parents claim that a farm employee, Jeremiah C. Hochteil, repeatedly raped their then 11-year-old daughter, on and off the farm. They accused King of negligence for hiring Hochteil, who had previously been convicted and imprisoned for sexual abuse and who was listed on the New York State Sex Offender Registry.
The girl has undergone psychological care and counseling, according to the lawsuit, and will require more treatment for “lifelong psychological, mental and emotional trauma.”
The parents are demanding unspecified monetary damages.
King and Saddle Brook Farm broadly denied the allegations last year in their answer to the complaint. They countered that the child and her parents are at least partly culpable, Hochteil was not an employee and the incidents did not occur at the farm.
The bankruptcy petition lists the claim as disputed and puts the liability at $1.
Hochteil, according to inmate records and news accounts, had been convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl in 2002. He was imprisoned for nearly three years at Gowanda Correction Facility, a medium security prison that had a sexual counseling program.
In 2019 he pled guilty in Orange County Court to sexually assaulting the 11-year-old Bronx girl and a woman in 2004.
Hochteil, 38, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He is serving time at Attica Correction Facility, a maximum security prison.
