A Long Island dad who allegedly rescued his sex-trafficked 14-year-old daughter from a boat last year is suing for $10 million over claims she was assaulted as she recovered in a psych ward.
Frank Gervasi, 50, is suing Suffolk County and New York State after his rescued daughter Emmarae was allegedly assaulted in two separate state-run psychiatric facilities from January to March 2025, after her rescue, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.
“The Father was encouraged and reassured by the Country of Suffolk and the Court, that this was safe and in [Emmarae’s] best interest to be placed in [Sagamore Children’s Psychiatric and later Brentwood Residential Center] facilities,” the lawsuit said.
Emma had gone missing for 25 days month in December 2024 before her father said he rescued from her from a 56-foot yacht docked at Whitecap Marina in Islip.
Prosecutors said she had been held captive and was repeatedly raped by adult men during the time in between. She was then sent to Sagamore by a Suffolk Family Court judge, where she would spend nearly a month before being transferred to Brentwood House in early February.
During her stay, staff at Sagamore had already warned supervisors that an employee, Deshaun McClean, was being “a little too handsy with the minor,” the suit alleges.
Gervasi claims he was assured by officials that the worker posed no threat to his daughter — but less than a week later, McClean sexually assaulted Emmarae anyway, the suit alleges.
After the traumatic experience, Emma was then transferred to Brentwood House, where a second staffer, Joseph Edward, assaulted her again along with other workers, according to the filing.
A third employee, Darryl Joyner, was later accused of offering Emmarae drugs in exchange for seeing her nude while she stayed at the Brentwood facility in May of last year, according to a criminal complaint.
The suit also alleges a Stony Brook University Hospital employee improperly accessed Emmarae’s medical records in January 2025 — pulling her name, address, diagnosis, medications and treatment history — though the hospital was not named as a defendant.
“The minor was in a zone of danger, and despite that knowledge, [officials] took no steps to protect the minor,” the lawsuit charged.
McClean and Joyner were both charged with sex crimes against a minor, are currently free on cash bail, and are due back in court later this month.
An 83-count indictment charging 11 people with kidnapping, child sex trafficking and rape for their alleged actions against Emmarae was unsealed in Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead last year.
Cases against 10 of the men accused remain active.
