Ex-Peabody Teacher Gave Drugs To, Had Sex With Student: Lawsuit

PEABODY, MA — A former Peabody Veterans Memorial High School student claims in a federal lawsuit filed last month that he was given drugs and alcohol and sexually abused by Lynette Occhipinti, an educational assistant at the school, starting when he was a freshman at the school in 1999. The lawsuit names Occhipinti, the city of Peabody, former special education teacher David Montgomery and 10 school staff members whose names he does not remember as defendants. The student is identified as John Doe in court documents.

Occhipinti currently works as an executive assistant at the Northshore Education Consortium's Kevin O'Grady School. Montgomery, who was head of the school's special education department when Doe attended the school, now lives in San Francisco. Occhipinti, Montgomery, Peabody Public Schools Superintendent Cara Murtagh and Mayor Ted Bettencourt, who chairs the school committee, did not respond to requests for comment.

Doe has attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities and received an individualized education plan when he enrolled in the school in the fall of 1999, according to the complaint. As part of that plan, Occhipinti was assigned to tutor him for one hour every school day. The lawsuit claims that Occhipinti invited Doe and an older student she tutored to her Salem home to use her tanning bed.

The lawsuit claims that Occhipinti and her then-husband Robert smoked marijuana with the two boys. They continued to visit the home twice a week to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. As Doe's grades improved, Occhipinti started tutoring him outside of school and on school breaks at her home. The lawsuit claims Occhipinti would pull Doe from classes to take walks on the school property and would complete homework assignments for him.

During his sophomore year, Doe visited Occhipinti's house after breaking up with a girlfriend, the lawsuit said. Doe claims she kissed him and told him she had "real feelings" for him. On a subsequent visit, she performed a sexual act on Doe, the lawsuit said. On another visit, when he was 15, she tried to force him to have sexual intercourse with her, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also claims Occhipinti gave Doe other students with prescription painkillers and that she and her former husband, Robert Occhipinti, gave and taught Doe how to inject steroids. Doe continued to use steroids throughout his time in high school. During his junior year, the complaint said, Occhipinti gave him cocaine after serving alcohol to Doe and his friends at a party at her house.

Doe's complaint also claims Occhipinti was having an affair with Montgomery. She would invite Doe, Montgomery and other students to her home when Robert Occhipinti was out of town. Doe said Montgomery used cocaine and discussed some of his female students with kids that attended the gatherings at Occhipinti's home.

On another occasion, the lawsuit said, Doe and a friend visited Occhipinti at her summer home in New Hampshire. The lawsuit claims Occhipinti, who knew Doe was drunk, insisted he drive her two young sons to a friends house to get ice cream. Doe blacked out during the drive and the two boys had to drive the car home, crashing it into a bicycle in front of Occhipinti's vacation home.

By his senior year, Doe said in his complaint, he was using the drugs Occhipinti had introduced him to on a daily basis. In addition to giving him drugs, Doe claims, Occhipinti gave him money and told him where and how he could buy drugs on his own.

"By the time JOHN graduated from high school, he was a full-blown addict," the complaint reads. The lawsuit claims that Occhipinti tried to continue their relationship for several years after he graduated in 2003. In 2005, Doe tried to break off the relationship with Occhipinti after her husband died in a Florida motorcycle crash. When he stopped returning her calls, she went to his parents' Peabody home.

While getting treatment for addiction, the lawsuit said, Doe disclosed his relationship with Occhipinti to mental health counselors in 2016. "Occhipinti, an educator, deprived JOHN of an education, plied him with drugs and alcohol so she could sexually abuse him, and caused the addiction that has nearly killed him," the complaint said.