Another accuser files civil suit against Speedbowl owner
Another man has filed a civil lawsuit against the owner of the New London-Waterford Speedbowl alleging a sexual assault more than 20 years ago, The Hartford Courant reported Tuesday.
The Enfield resident, who is not identified in the suit, says that Bruce Bemer, who was charged last month in a decades-long scheme to lure men into sex in exchange for drugs and money, repeatedly molested him in 1993.
Bemer, a Glastonbury businessman who bought the semiprofessional car-racing track at auction in 2014, was arraigned last Thursday in Danbury Superior Court, along with a Westport man, William Trefzger, and Danbury resident Robert King, on a charge of patronizing a trafficked person.
Earlier this month, lawyers also filed a civil action on behalf of two of the alleged victims that could force Bemer and Trefzger to relinquish up to $10 million in assets.
Now the anonymous Enfield man, represented by New Britain attorney Kevin Ferry, has filed suit in Superior Court in Hartford.
Ferry is seeking to freeze $5 million worth of Bemer's assets, according the Courant. Ferry told the newspaper that the man was 15 at the time of the alleged abuse, and contacted the FBI and Ferry only after seeing news coverage of Bemer’s arrest.
The Courant reported that the lawsuit claims the sexual abuse occurred at the offices of Bemer's Galstonbury gas company, Bemer Petroleum Corp.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit in the criminal case, Bemer was one of the primary clients of an arrangement in which King would approach young men, many of whom had severe mental illness or psychological disorders, and befriend them before introducing them to the clients.
In interviews with police, victims said the sexual encounters allegedly took place all over Connecticut, including Bemer’s businesses in Hartford and Glastonbury.
Two of the victims of the scheme said they met Bemer at the Speedbowl, and one said Bemer would drive him from there to his Glastonbury business, where they allegedly would have sex in exchange for money.
If the civil case against Bemer and the other men in Danbury Superior Court goes through, the court could take control of their assets, which in Bemer’s case includes the Route 85 racetrack.
Speedbowl officials have indicated they plan on opening the track for the season in early May, though NASCAR on April 6 said it had terminated its agreement to sanction the main racing series at the track. Several members of the track’s upper management have reportedly resigned.
