Who gets to see Laila? Dad battles grandparents in court

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:02]Daddy, daddy, think about it. Daddy, >> amidst all the court dates, the legal documents, bad blood, and grief.

[00:00:17]This is all that matters to Scott Naso.

[00:00:20]>> You can make me pancakes. Well, I just made you pancakes for breakfast.

[00:00:24]>> I think there's something here that I can find. The sound of his four-year-old daughter, Ila, hard at play.

[00:00:31]>> No, Daddy. No. No. No. Daddy, go back in your chair.

[00:00:35]>> It's easy to see who runs this house.

[00:00:38]>> Leila's nickname is Queen.

[00:00:40]>> No.

[00:00:42]>> It's been 2 years since she inherited that title after her mom died battling cancer. How would you say you're doing now? How are you?

[00:00:51]>> I've been living in a survival mode for the last 2 years. That being said, I'm doing everything I can to make sure Leila comes out of this completely unscathed.

[00:01:02]>> Survival mode. Because Scott says so much of the last 2 years has been lived under siege. He's been locked in a legal battle over grandparents' rights and official complaints with accusations of what's known as Munchousen Syndrome by proxy against his wife's parents. Why do you not want her grandparents to be in her life? I believe that it was her grandparents, my wife's parents that are the reason my wife passed away when she did. They were discouraging her from getting treatment. They were masking the symptoms that now I know was her cancer return. I also believe that they were hurting my daughter. And I don't believe that they're a good influence.

[00:01:47]>> Daddy, Leila, me. I mean, mommy, that's me.

[00:01:54]So Sherry and I met in Newport, Rhode Island back in 2016 and are you getting choked up?

[00:02:05]>> You fell hard.

[00:02:06]>> It was Yeah, it was like a fairy tale, you know. My wife was diagnosed with a stage three breast cancer in June of 2017. She went through infusion chemotherapy. She went through multiple surgeries. She went through radiation, full double mctomy, and breast reconstruction, and we thought she was in remission.

[00:02:28]>> Sherry was a stay-at-home mom. Scott, a detective for the Middletown Police.

[00:02:33]When the couple needed backup help, Sherry's parents, Jila Corsand and Sio Gerishi, who are both doctors, lived nearby. Her father was a solo practitioner pediatrician and the mother was the chief of pathology for a large hospital group here locally.

[00:02:50]>> When Ila was about two, Sherry started feeling unwell again, pain, numbness, particularly on her right side, fatigue, confusion, forgetfulness.

[00:02:59]>> Her parents kept telling her her symptoms were related to Prozac withdrawals. I believed it. I know she believed it. Court records show text messages between Sherry and her mother about Prozac and her writing there was nothing wrong with Sherry. Messages with her father show them talking about pain and sometimes discussing medications he prescribed to her. Neither he or Sherry's mom were her primary doctors.

[00:03:26]In those text messages, Sherry's mom told her she didn't need to see another doctor. She needed to wait it out.

[00:03:33]>> What do you think was at play? What was happening? He uses the term munch house by proxy. I'll use the term need to be needed. Call it like the hero in a medical sense, right?

[00:03:42]>> Scott says he believed his in-laws, but thought Sherry needed a second opinion anyway.

[00:03:48]>> And my wife was sitting on the couch and it looked like she had had a stroke.

[00:03:53]>> It looked like she'd had a stroke.

[00:03:55]>> So, the right side of her face was drooping. She couldn't move her right arm.

[00:03:59]>> Scott eventually got Sher to meet with a friend's father, who was a neurologist.

[00:04:04]That doctor finally sent Sherry and Scott to the ER >> and it was a 4.2 approximately centimeter brain tumor. So about the size of a golf ball. She texted her mother.

[00:04:17]I'll never forget this line.

[00:04:20]You said I'd be fine.

[00:04:21]>> I miss you, ma.

[00:04:23]>> Friends were watching Ila sending her messages. I love you.

[00:04:28]>> She came out of surgery in a coma.

[00:04:31]She died 11 days later.

[00:04:34]April 24th, 2024.

[00:04:38]Yeah. Yeah. That was that was uh Yeah.

[00:04:42]>> I'm sorry.

[00:04:44]>> I have to do this.

[00:04:47]I have to do this.

[00:04:48]>> Sherry was just 37. While Sherry's parents did help care for Ila during this time, they did not visit Sherry once during her time at the hospital.

[00:04:58]They did not attend her funeral. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Sherry's mother said they did not go to the hospital because Sherry told them not to come. And Sherry's mom didn't want to see her daughter in that condition.

[00:05:10]>> The day she died, you saw her parents do something.

[00:05:17]>> Yeah.

[00:05:17]>> That troubled you.

[00:05:18]>> Yeah.

[00:05:19]>> What was it?

[00:05:20]>> Sherry's parents had pinned on the ground. Sherry's mother had her pinned by her shoulders and Sherry's father had one hand on her chest and I know now was a syringe of prennazone that he shot down her throat.

[00:05:34]>> In court, Sherry's father said he was treating Ila for COR. He said that as Ila's pediatrician, he didn't realize he needed to have Scott's permission to treat the little girl.

[00:05:45]>> What in your mind just happened? In my mind, they just assaulted my daughter.

[00:05:52]>> In the aftermath of Sherry's death, he investigated and found pharmacy records showing that Sherry's father had written 124 prescriptions for Sherry from 2014 to 2024, 26 of them in the last year of her life. Scott also found that the grandfather had written 36 prescriptions for Ila. Scott Nazo is alleging that the grandparents were intentionally harming Leila. It's often called Manchowin by proxy. That these doctors, the grandparents, were doing things to this child that were destructive to her health.

[00:06:33]>> In his trial testimony, Sherry's father said that Scott had never complained about his treatment of Ila while he was her pediatrician. He also testified that even though organizations like the American Medical Association say it's unethical for doctors to treat their own families, he didn't tell that to Scott or his daughter.

[00:06:52]>> You said in court that you believe that her parents were the reason why she died when she did.

[00:07:01]>> What did you mean by that?

[00:07:02]>> They were discouraging her from getting treatment. They were discouraging the symptoms that now I know was her cancer returning. How did they do that?

[00:07:11]>> Medications from pain to respiratory ailments to stomach and bowel troubles.

[00:07:19]>> At the trial, Sherry's father acknowledged he did prescribe those medications and that the drugs were not to treat cancer. A few months after Sherry's death, Scott decided he did not want his wife's parents visiting his daughter anymore. The reaction swift.

[00:07:35]Sherry's parents suing for visitation.

[00:07:38]The law in Rhode Island is more favorable to grandparents. All they really have to do is show that the parent is being unreasonable in denying them access.

[00:07:49]>> Initially, a judge gave Sherry's parents temporary supervised visits once every other week for an hour.

[00:07:55]>> What was your reaction?

[00:07:56]>> I was an emotional wreck.

[00:07:58]>> Scott lodged formal complaints against Sherry's mom and dad with the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. and Scott eventually stopped the visits. The case over visitation finally went to trial.

[00:08:12]>> There were no allegations about your parenting at all. To be clear, >> none whatsoever. In fact, they actually said multiple times that I'm a fit parent.

[00:08:20]>> A crucial piece of evidence turned out to be a secretly recorded conversation that Sherry's parents provided where Scott is talking to some family friends.

[00:08:29]>> You're not here to like spy on me or what I'm telling you. As it turned out, they were.

[00:08:35]>> The grandparents had thought that this tape was actually going to help their case. But in the end, the judge said that it did the reverse.

[00:08:47]>> That meant the case was dismissed.

[00:08:49]Victory for Scott. No visitation for Sherry's parents. The judge didn't make any determination about whether Scott's allegations about the grandparents involvement in Sherry's death were true or not. But that would be in a different court for a different judge. This litigation has put us in a hole that is so financially deep. I don't know what to do.

[00:09:16]>> It costs a lot.

[00:09:18]>> Yeah. Over over $500,000. It's all I can do right now to afford the mortgage. You know, I I've had some friends set up a GoFundMe for Leila and I to help.

[00:09:29]>> Sherry's father closed his practice and her mother resigned from her job. Both have let their medical licenses expire.

[00:09:36]They have a couple more weeks to decide whether they will appeal the judge's decision. They had no comment to ABC News.

[00:09:43]>> I'm hoping to change those laws across this whole country, but I'm going to start here first.

[00:09:50]It's free from the big this part.

[00:09:52]>> For now, Scott wants to keep Ila happy and laughing.