Court documents this week revealed that Frank Gervasi—the outspoken parental guardian of an East Patchogue 14-year-old girl who was subjected to sexual exploitation on an Islip Marina yacht for 25 days—intends to file suit against Suffolk County.
Gervasi contends his daughter—who shall remain unnamed henceforth, as she is a minor—had her constitutional rights violated when a Suffolk Family Court Judge remanded her to Sagamore Children’s Psychiatric Center in Dix Hills after her early January rescue.
The following month, a Sagamore-employed mental health therapist aide had been charged with child sex abuse and endangering the welfare of Gervasi’s child.
"Sometime after the placement at Sagamore, staff members reported to their supervisor that another employee was being a little to [sic] ‘handsy’ with the minor," Gervasi wrote in the notice filed by his attorneys at Keegan & Keegan Ross & Rosner in Patchogue.
Deshaun McClean, 42, allegedly molested the teenager on at least two occasions during her in-patient treatment, bringing a grueling overload of burden to a victim and her family who had already suffered plenty.
Court records citing surveillance footage purport the defendant touched the teen’s private body parts, performed massages and watched her touch herself on numerous occasions between Jan. 9th and Jan. 28th.
The Gervasi patriarch now seeks monetary damage for the strife brought upon by this abominable happenstance.
Gervasi made national headlines during a “Dr. Phil Podcast” appearance where he recounted recovering his daughter from waterside capture after receiving an anonymous tip.
Months later, a dirty dozen have been charged with a range of crimes ranging from kidnapping to child sex trafficking and rame.
An 83-count indictment pertaining to the initial 11 defendants was unsealed in Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead last week.
Since McClean’s alleged crimes occurred after the victim had been freed from what Suffolk prosecutors argue was a pretty cut-and-dry human trafficking ring, he is being tried separately.
The Deer Park resident remains free on cash bail. He is due back in court on April 28.
As winter paves way for springtime, those who walk down to the water in Islip can’t help but think of an image and locale sullied by the knowledge of what pedophiliac nefariousness transpired there, per the efforts of some Grade-A cretans of the universe.
Meanwhile, even so-called sanctuaries like Sagamore Psych Center—the recipient of 107 complaints of abuse and neglect this decade, according to data provided by the New York State Justice Center—can’t keep the stew from spoiling rotten.
Hence, the fury of a fed-up father who demands more answers with each new development in this case; answers to questions that all begin with the same pointed keyword: why?