Family Court judge in contentious R.I. grandparents case retires, decision on visitation will be left to new judge
Though she had survived breast cancer several years earlier, her parents, Dr. Siavash Ghoreishi, a pediatrician, and Dr. Jila Khorsand, a chief pathologist, had told her that her growing weakness, numbness, and bowel trouble
were caused by lymphedema and weaning off Prozac. In reality, she had developed a massive brain tumor and her body was riddled with cancer.
Get Rhode Map
A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State.
Enter Email
Sign Up
After his wife's death, Naso, a narcotics detective in Middletown, R.I., discovered dozens of prescriptions that Ghoreishi had written for his wife and his daughter. He read texts on his wife's phone from Khorsand, a chief pathologist, that misdiagnosed her symptoms, advised her to take holistic supplements, and belittled their marriage.
Advertisement
He decided he didn't want his in-laws around Laila, and thought family court would reinforce his parental rights.
Scott Naso and his friends enter Rhode Island Family Court in Rhode Island on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
Last fall,
Advertisement
Ghoreishi and Korsand told the Globe they are not a threat to their granddaughter and deny any wrongdoing in their only daughter's death.
Family Court Judge Michael Forte said on Tuesday that DiSegna had recused — he didn't give a reason — and would retire in 60 days.
He and the grandparents' lawyer, Michael Ahn, both criticized Naso for speaking to
the Globe and letting the newspaper publish photos of Laila.
Forte said he was given the Boston Globe article, but didn't read it. 'Trying a case involving a young child in the media is frankly despicable to me,' he said.
Outside the courtroom, Naso
justified his decision to talk to the media, saying that before the article was published, 'no one would listen to me.'
'Nobody is looking out for my child. They're telling me what's best for my child,' Naso said, standing with friends of his and his late wife.
Family Court Judge Felix Gill, who is based in Newport County, will travel to the Kent County courthouse in Warwick to hear this case, Forte said.
Gill will take up Naso's motion for a hearing, as well as Ghoreishi and Khorsand's motion to have Naso held in contempt for not letting them see Laila since late January.
The visits were suspended in February because the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families launched an investigation; the results of the investigation were sealed in court Tuesday.
Ghoreishi and Khorsand left the courtroom without commenting.
Advertisement
Naso said he first became suspicious of his in-laws' care the day Sherry Naso died. At Naso's home in front of mourners, Ghoreishi and Khorsand held Laila down and forced a syringe of prednisone into her throat, making her vomit. Ghoreishi said Laila had the croup.
'I've been in practice for 37 years, and I've treated over a hundred cases of croup,' he explained to the Globe. 'And she is my granddaughter. I love her to death.'
Naso, a Middletown detective who was working with the Rhode Island high-intensity drug areas task force, then found dozens of medications throughout his house, prescribed
by Ghoreishi. He also retrieved records that showed Ghoreishi had prescribed 124 medications to Sherry Naso in the last 10 years and 36 medications for Laila before she turned 3.
The American Medical Association code of ethics says physicians shouldn't treat themselves or close family.
Ghoreishi closed his practice the day his daughter died. Khorsand left her job at SouthCoast Hospitals Group. Their Rhode Island medical licenses expired in summer 2024.
The Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline is investigating Naso's complaint against his in-laws. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island is also investigating insurance claims that Ghoreishi filed for care of Laila, Sherry, and Scott Naso; Naso said he had never been Ghoreishi's
patient.
Amanda Milkovits can be reached at
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
15 hours ago
- Boston Globe
A Providence high school student's asylum case is in limbo after ICE abruptly moves her to Colorado
'It is unusual for someone to be moved to so close to their individual hearing, however, [Customs and Border Protection], ICE, and the facilities will just say that they had to move her for space issues, or because they simply got overcrowded on the calendar, or other reasons that we don't really know about,' Salazar Tohme told the Globe. Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up Salazar Tohme thinks ICE may decide to move a detainee because it would make it more difficult to retain legal counsel as 'it would just seem that that's what the administration is doing,' she said. Advertisement 'At this point, she doesn't know what's going to happen … She is scared, and she's relying on me,' she said. Soriano-Neto, a Honduran national, was slated to graduate Mount Pleasant High School this week, according to Salazar Tohme. 'She's told me ... she was only ever interested in going to school and being with her friends, and then all of this happened,' she said. Advertisement Soriano-Neto was arrested in February by Providence police on charges of indecent solicitation of a child and trafficking of a minor, Rhode Island court records show. She was charged after she was blamed, without proof, by at least one of her friends, who were allegedly having sex with men for money, her attorneys have said. Soriano-Neto unlawfully entered the United States as a child, but had been on a pathway to legal status when she was arrested. She has an approved Special Immigrant Juvenile petition and had been waiting for a visa number, according to Salazar Tohme. Soriano-Neto was detained by ICE in March and was held in Maine until June 1, when she was moved to Colorado with little notice, Salazar Tohme said. Her asylum hearing had been set for June 4. Soriano-Neto was transferred days after John MacDonald, Soriano-Neto's criminal defense attorney, said Thursday the timing is not a coincidence. 'We see it with this administration: The cruelty is the point,' MacDonald said in an interview. 'And this just absolutely smacks of retaliation.' MacDonald said a warrant will perhaps be issued against Soriano-Neto when she eventually fails to appear in Rhode Island criminal court and 'there's no coming back to the United States lawfully … when there's an active warrant.' If she was held locally, the case may have gone before a grand jury, and maybe even to trial, according to MacDonald, although he thinks the matter is an 'extremely weak case' based on the evidence he has seen. Advertisement 'The issue is probable cause at this point, is such a low standard that no matter how ridiculous the story, it can still easily be charged,' MacDonald said. 'So all of that won't happen now because she is out of the state and, you know, for all practical purposes may be deported because asylum is incredibly tough to win and to prove,' he added. ICE did not return a request for comment on Friday. An online ICE detainee portal shows Soriano-Neto is being held at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colo. According to a Providence police report, officers met with the parents of a girl – whose name was redacted – who said their daughter told them she was sexually assaulted by four men in Providence. The girl told police that on Jan. 8, Soriano-Neto called her and told her to meet her on Atwells Avenue and that she was going to a party. The two met and drove to a house on Concannon Street, where the girl was met by three men. Soriano-Neto 'asked her to make sure she gives them food and make sure she gets money from the three male subjects as well,' police wrote. The girl said she was able to get $100 cash from the men, which she gave to Soriano-Neto, according to the report. Soriano-Neto left the house, and later that day four different men came to the house. Details about what allegedly happened were redacted from the report, which states only that the men 'came into the house and began to [redacted], however they did not have [redacted] with her.' Advertisement In the report, police also wrote, 'It should be noted that [redacted name]'s statement was vague and inconsistent.' MacDonald has said Soriano-Neto is not a human trafficker. 'These people from high school that were supposedly her friends were apparently hooking up with men and getting cash for it, and when word got out, they pointed the finger – at least one of them did – at Vivian ... without any proof whatsoever other than their word," MacDonald said last week. Soriano-Neto does not want to voluntarily leave the United States and is willing to 'stay as long as the appeals are going through,' Salazar Tohme said. The attorney was set to meet with Soriano-Neto's mother last Thursday, she said. 'Her mother and her sister have decided that they want to fly back to Honduras to receive her off the airplane, because they don't know what will happen to her when she gets there and they want to be there before her,' Salazar Tohme said. 'So if they leave, that essentially leaves me as her immigration attorney, the only adult in charge of her in the United States.' Salazar Tohme is not leaving the case, she said. 'I'm not going anywhere, but if I have to go to Colorado and hold Vivian's hand and tell her I'm going to appeal for her, I certainly will fly to Colorado and do that,' she said. Christopher Gavin can be reached at
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Boston Globe
This is what an ICE arrest in Boston immigration court looks like.
As Diaz Martinez left the courtroom, the five officers approached. Most of the other petitioners — men, women, families with children — had walked in and out of their hearings without issue that day. But she was not so lucky. As agents arrested the mother of two, she had a medical episode. Advertisement She pleaded not to be separated from her husband, Wiliz de Leon, whom she had just married the previous Saturday. And she had two children, 10 and 7 years old, who were back in the Dominican Republic. A lawyer standing nearby interjected. 'You don't have to take her into custody,' Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a clinical associate professor of law and associate director of the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University School of Law, told the ICE officials. Sherman-Stokes was there to observe Advertisement 'We're doing our job,' one of the agents said. Diaz Martinez, 29, had been in the US for a little over a year, after crossing the southern border unlawfully and being apprehended by immigration officials. She was fleeing domestic violence in her home country, Sherman-Stokes said, and is seeking asylum. Diaz Martinez's arrest was the result of a new immigration enforcement tactic that has played out across the nation: Department of Homeland Security lawyers have paired this tactic with a new legal strategy: pressing immigration court judges to dismiss pending cases or issue deportation orders against petitioners who have been in the country for less than two years, at their initial hearings. Dismissals and deportation orders leave immigrants more vulnerable to deportation. In Massachusetts, the immigration court arrests began in the last two weeks. Last Tuesday, at least three people were arrested at the Boston court, including a man who said he was a political torture survivor from Angola, according to Sherman-Stokes. Wiliz de Leon left the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston on June 3 after his wife suffered a medical emergency while being arrested by ICE, while she was in the building for an immigration court appearance. He is a U.S. citizen. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff de Leon, Diaz Martinez's husband, is a US citizen. The couple met in the Dominican Republic about four and a half years ago, and have been together since. They live together in Providence. de Leon told the Globe that the couple had seen reports of arrests at Advertisement 'She was really scared to be deported,' de Leon said in Spanish. Now, de Leon said, the couple felt 'betrayed.' 'We always want to follow the rules,' de Leon said the morning after his wife's arrest, sounding defeated in a phone call. 'I don't understand what the motive for this is.' In a statement to the Globe, a Homeland Security spokesperson said most immigrants who entered the country illegally within the past two years are subject to expedited removals, and blamed the Biden administration for allowing 'millions of illegal aliens' into the United States. 'If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation,' the spokesperson said. ICE did not respond to a request for comment on Diaz Martinez's case. Last Tuesday, as she was taken into custody, she seemed to need medical attention. She was struggling to breathe, had chest pain, and was having trouble standing upright. ICE called Emergency Medical Services, who examined her and eventually brought a gurney. 'I just don't understand. She's doing exactly what she's supposed to do,' Sherman-Stokes said, appealing again to the ICE agents to allow Diaz Martinez to return home. But it didn't sway the officials. An ICE agent accompanied her to the hospital because she was in custody. Her husband was not allowed to enter the ambulance, or, later, her hospital room. 'You have to let him go,' an EMS worker told Diaz Martinez in Spanish, gently, as she lay on the gurney in the hallway of the court. Advertisement Diaz Martinez reluctantly released her husband's hand. That night, she was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, and then to the ICE field office in Burlington, where she has been sleeping on a concrete floor in a holding cell with about 12 other women, and using a foil blanket to cover herself, Sherman-Stokes said. Derege B. Demissie, a criminal defense attorney, filed a habeas petition for Diaz Martinez not to be moved out of state, in collaboration with Sherman-Stokes. A Massachusetts federal judge temporarily granted the motion last week. Sherman-Stokes filed a motion for Diaz Martinez to be released on bond. 'She hasn't stopped crying,' de Leon, 40, said in an interview. He followed up in a text: 'I don't know what to do.' Sherman-Stokes, who has been practicing immigration law for more than a decade, said she had seen asylum seekers enduring agonizing conditions at the US-Mexico border, in detention facilities, and elsewhere. But watching someone get arrested at court, where they were trying to follow the law and request asylum, was uniquely distressing. 'I just can't shake what just happened,' Sherman-Stokes said. 'These are folks trying their very best to comply with the law, and instead they're taken away in handcuffs.' Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
21-Year-Old Woman Found Dead in ‘Wooded Area' amid Fears of a New England Serial Killer
The body of Adriana Suazo was found in a wooded area in the Norfolk District, in Milton, Mass., on Sunday, June 1 The 21-year-old's death comes after several women have been found dead in the New England region since March, sparking fears of a serial killer in the region Suazo's cause of death is being investigated by the Chief Medical Examiner, according to the Norfolk District Attorney's OfficeSpeculation that a serial killer is operating in New England has been reignited following the discovery of a woman's body in Massachusetts. At around 11:45 a.m. local time on Sunday, June 1, the body of 21-year-old Adriana Suazo was found 'in a wooded area' by a passerby near a home on 143 Central Avenue, Norfolk District, in Milton, Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey announced in a press release. Suazo's body showed 'no obvious signs of trauma.' The Chief Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of her death. Family members said they weren't sure why Suazo — who grew up in Boston — had been in Milton at the time, the Boston Globe reported. One of her sisters allegedly said she'd last spoken to Suazo on May 29. The discovery of Suazo's body marks the 13th unexplained death in remote or wooded areas in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine since March, sparking concerns of a possible serial killer on the loose in the region, Fox News reported. In April, the remains of six people were found in towns close to one another in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The victims included Paige Fannon, 35, who was found in the Norwalk River on March 6, Denise Leary, 59, who was found in New Haven on March 21 and Michele Romano, 56, five days later, according to police. Police denied a single suspect in the killings, despite speculation about a serial killer in the area at the time. 'This investigation is in the early stages, remains active and ongoing, and there is no information at this time suggesting any connection to similar remains discoveries actively under investigation by CSP or other CT law enforcement agencies," the Connecticut State Police told PEOPLE in a statement at the time. The police added that 'there is no known threat to the public at this time.' A GoFundMe page set up by Suazo's sister, Mel Loves, described her as 'a firecracker, full of life, laughter, and fierce love' and said her death has been 'heartbreaking.' 'Losing her so suddenly has shattered our world,' the description on the page read. 'My family is completely heartbroken, trying to navigate this pain while also doing everything we can to give Adriana the proper burial she deserves—a sendoff that honors the vibrant, loving, and unforgettable person she was.' The page so far has raised $9,550 with a goal of reaching $11,000 to cover funeral costs. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Authorities are urging anyone who saw Suazo in the last week to call the Massachusetts State Police Tip Line at the NDAO at 781-830-4990. The investigation is ongoing. PEOPLE has contacted the NDAO and the Massachusetts State Police for comment. Read the original article on People
