Patchogue father sues Suffolk over daughter’s alleged abuse in care facilities
A Patchogue father says his 14-year-old daughter was endangered twice, first after she vanished, then after Suffolk and state custody placements allegedly exposed her to abuse.
Frank Gervasi says Suffolk County and New York State failed his 14-year-old daughter twice, first after Emmarae Gervasi vanished from Patchogue and again after he found her aboard a 56-foot yacht at Whitecap Marina in Islip 25 days later.
He filed a federal lawsuit Friday, April 3, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Central Islip, seeking $10 million in damages. The complaint says the girl was sexually assaulted by government workers after she was placed in facilities meant to protect her, turning a missing-child case into a broader test of how county and state systems handle vulnerable teens.
Two days after Frank Gervasi found his daughter on Jan. 3, 2025, a Suffolk Family Court judge remanded her to Sagamore Children’s Psychiatric Center in Dix Hills. She was later transferred to the Brentwood Residential Center for Girls. The lawsuit centers on what happened after the child was handed from one government setting to another, and whether those placements offered safety or created new danger.
The criminal case already attached to the girl’s disappearance has been sprawling. Prosecutors said she was raped and sex-trafficked by multiple defendants while she was missing. Nine defendants faced a 75-count indictment in the matter, and one Sagamore employee, DeShaun McClean, is alleged to have inappropriately touched the girl and watched her perform a sex act while she was receiving care.
Gervasi has said the search for his daughter consumed nearly a month of fear before he found her himself. “I did find her myself before the police got there,” he said. “It was 26 days of hell seeing her alive in my arms.”
The lawsuit puts Suffolk’s child-protection and family-court pipeline under scrutiny, from the moment a runaway teen is located to the decisions that follow in court, psychiatric care, and residential placement. If the allegations hold up, the case will not only examine the conduct of individual workers, but also the documentation, supervision, and accountability of the agencies that were supposed to shield a Patchogue child from further harm.
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