Dad speaks out after winning grandparents' visitation rights case
Scott Naso sat down with ABC News' Juju Chang.
A Rhode Island father is speaking out after winning a legal case against his late wife's parents regarding visitation rights with his daughter.
"This is about parents' rights. Being a grandparent doesn't give you inherent rights to your grandchildren," Scott Naso told ABC News' Juju Chang. "Being grandparents, in my opinion, is a privilege."
Naso said he has been living in "survival mode" since his wife Shahrzad "Sherry" Naso died two years ago and he became embroiled in a legal battle with his in-laws Siavash Ghoreishi and Jila Khorsand, both former medical doctors.
Before she died, Sherry Naso had battled breast cancer and underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation before her cancer went into remission, according to Scott Naso. He said they subsequently married, starting a family with the help of a surrogate and welcoming their daughter Laila.
Sherry Naso's parents lived near the family and would help out when they needed help, according to Scott Naso.
In 2023, Scott Naso said his wife started to feel unwell again.
"Her parents kept telling her her symptoms were related to Prozac [a type of medication used to treat depression and other conditions] withdrawals. As a lay person and not a doctor, I believed it," he said. "I know [Sherry Naso] believed it. I really thought that was it."
Rhode Island Family Court records show some of the text message conversations Sherry Naso had with her parents. In some of the messages, when Sherry Naso complained about symptoms she was experiencing, her parents told her she didn't need to see other doctors and that she should wait out her symptoms.
Scott Naso said he believed his late wife's parents at the time but also felt like she should get a second expert opinion.
He said his wife then met with a friend's father who was a neurologist and said afterward, she went to an emergency room a day later for treatment.
"She had brain surgery and it was a 4.2 approximately-centimeter brain tumor. So about the size of a golf ball," Scott Naso said. "They did surgery and ... she came out of surgery in a coma. She died 11 days later, April 24, 2024."
He said on the day of his wife's death, he also witnessed her parents treating his daughter Laila in a way that troubled him.
"Sherry's parents had Laila pinned on the ground. Sherry's mother had her pinned by her shoulders and Sherry's father had one hand on her chest," Scott Naso alleges. "I know now it was a syringe of prednisone [a type of steroid hormone that can be used as an anti-inflammatory agent or immunosuppressant] that he shot down her throat."
Ghoreishi said in court that as Laila's pediatrician, he had been treating her for croup, a type of upper airway infection, and that he hadn't realized he needed to get her father's consent to treat his granddaughter.
After Sherry Naso died, her husband testified in court that her father Ghoreishi closed his pediatrics practice and her mother Khorsand resigned from her job. Both Ghoreishi and Khorsand subsequently let their medical licenses expire.
Scott Naso said by the summer of 2024, he decided he didn't want Ghoreishi and Khorsand to visit Laila anymore.
Ghoreishi and Khorsand petitioned a family court judge for visitation rights, claiming they had rights as grandparents.
"The one thing I'll say on the grandparents' rights thing ... they're petitioning for visitation because grandparents don't have these inherent rights to visitation," Scott Naso said.
A judge granted Ghoreishi and Khorsand temporary supervised visits but the visits were paused during an investigation by Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth and Families. Scott Naso had filed a complaint with the state department of health, accusing the grandparents of improperly prescribing medication to his wife and daughter for years, according to the Boston Globe.
He later refused to resume the temporary supervised visits and he was held in contempt of court for doing so because it violated a court order. The court ordered him to pay a $2,500 fine.
The trial lasted months and ultimately, a judge decided in Scott Naso's favor, a decision based on a key piece of evidence provided by Ghoreishi and Khorsand in court -- a secretly-recorded tape where Scott Naso lists his concerns about Ghoreishi and Khorsand to family friends.
He said on the tape to a friend, "One of my concerns was that they were essentially spying on me, following me, having me followed, tracking Laila and I said, 'Are you here spying on me? Are you here to record me?' ... as it turns out they were."
The judge only ruled on visitation and did not hear any evidence nor make any findings of fact or law regarding whether or not Ghoreishi and Khorsand contributed to their daughter's death and there has not been any determination or legal claim of malpractice.
Scott Naso said since the trial, Laila has "never asked" to see her grandparents.
When asked what he would tell his daughter if she did inquire about her grandparents, he said, "When she gets older, that's going to be, obviously, a conversation we're going to have."
An attorney for Ghoreishi and Khorsand told ABC News they are not commenting at this time and directed to the judge’s written decision on the matter.
Watch more of ABC News' Juju Chang's interview with Scott Naso on "Nightline" at 12:35 a.m. on Friday, May 15 on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu and Disney+.
