Litchfield, CT: Winsted man says he didn't cause girlfriend's death

BY BRIGITTE RUTHMAN REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

LITCHFIELD -- Peter Sebben insists he didn't cause his estranged girlfriend's death a decade ago, and insists the state reneged on a deal that would have ended his prosecution on manslaughter charges and kept him from prison.

The deal was withdrawn after a Superior Court judge heard from 27-year-old Tanya McKay's parents, who want Sebben prosecuted for causing her mortal head injuries. The case is now being challenged at the state's Appellate Court level, where it could be held up for years.

State attorneys can't move forward with criminal prosecution until the Appellate Court rules on Sebben's claim that the plea agreement should be honored, and that his trial strategy has already been revealed. Sebben, an auditor with the state's Department of Revenue Services, appeared Thursday in Litchfield Superior Court where the case was continued.

Suspicions were raised after Sebben delivered McKay to the emergency room at 5:30 a.m. New Year's Day, 2000, at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington. He claimed she had struck her head on the floor of his Winsted home before they went to bed that New Year's Eve, and that he awoke to find her vomiting and soiling the bed. Police found no evidence in the sheets or her clothing to support his claim. She died six days later at Hartford Hospital and the state's medical examiner declared her death of blunt force trauma a homicide.