Single Dad at Center of Grandparents Rights Trial Nearly Went Broke to Keep In-Laws from Daughter. He’s Not Done (Exclusive)

Scott Naso just won a costly two-year legal battle with his in-laws, who sought visitation with his 4-year-old daughter after his wife’s death

Naso suspects his late wife’s parents, both physicians, contributed to her death from cancer and engaged in questionable medical practices with their granddaughter; they deny wrongdoing and say it would be best to see the girl

The “grandparents rights” trial, with dueling allegations of family dysfunction, left Naso drained — but he is vowing to try to challenge the constitutionality of these laws

On a recent afternoon in a bedroom decorated with pink teddy bears and florals, Scott Naso’s 4-year-old, Laila, is jumping across a giant piano keyboard.

It’s “Daddy and Laila time” in their Portsmouth, R.I., home: precious hours between preschool and bedtime when she shows off her dancing or plays in the park. “She’s what keeps me going,” Naso, a 40-year-old narcotics detective, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “Her spirit is fuel for this battle.”

For the past two years Naso has mourned the loss of his wife, Sherry, from metastatic breast cancer at the age of 37. He’s also been fighting to keep his in-laws, whom he has come to suspect contributed to her death and committed medical abuse against Laila, away from their granddaughter.

In April, after a six-month trial that cost Naso more than $500,000 and exposed dueling allegations of family dysfunction and negligence, a judge denied his in-laws’ petition to see Laila.

Scott Naso and daughter Laila at home in May.Christopher ChurchillBut Naso says his fight isn’t over. He’s vowing to take on “grandparents’ rights” laws like the one in his state — even as experts are skeptical that high courts are ready to make new precedent.

“I have no expectation the floodgates to litigate this [will] open,” says Yale Law School professor Douglas NeJaime, who points out that all states have laws allowing outside parties to seek visitation with a child over a parent’s objection, but access isn’t granted “by simply showing it would be good for the child. They have to show something more, usually.”

Still, Naso is ready to press his constitutional challenge as far as the courts will take it: “I’m in search of something simple: justice. In my opinion it’s three things: truth, righteousness and, more importantly, accountability.”

‘Fairytale’ Turned Nightmare

When Naso first laid eyes on his future wife 10 years ago at a local pub, “I thought she was the most beautiful woman,” he says.

The only child of wealthy Iranian immigrants who were both physicians, Shahrzad, or Sherry, as she was known, “could light up a room.” They shared, Naso says, a “fairy tale” until she was diagnosed with breast cancer less than a year later.

“I remember friends saying, ‘Are you sure you can handle this?’ I said, ‘I love her,’ ” Naso says.

At first Sherry’s parents, Siavash Ghoreishi and Jila Khorsand, were valuable support. “Being a caregiver is a lot, and I had to work,” says Naso. They were by the couple’s side when they married in 2020 (“It was during COVID, and it was quiet and peaceful and perfect,” Naso says of the day).

When he and Sherry wanted to start a family, her mom and dad paid for in vitro fertilization and a surrogate (Sherry was unable to carry a baby due to her cancer treatment) and they helped as the couple built their dream home.

After Laila was born in July 2021, they were go-to babysitters. Naso says they could border on overbearing, but “I chalked it up to Sherry being an only child.”

From left: Scott and Sherry Naso with Laila on Mother’s Day in 2023.Courtesy Scott NasoOver time, however, he came to feel that “they controlled almost every facet of Sherry’s life. She didn’t even know how to write a check.”

As Laila grew, “they all but moved in. They were interfering in our marriage, interjecting in our discipline with Laila,” Naso says. “It was a toxic environment.”

(Sherry’s parents declined to comment to PEOPLE, and their attorney referred to the judge’s final order finding that “it is in Laila’s best [interest] to visit with her grandparents,” even though the decision is ultimately for Naso.)

Worse for everyone, Sherry began experiencing stomach issues and respiratory symptoms in 2023. According to texts revealed in court, her parents reassured her the symptoms must be related to Prozac withdrawal and said she had lymphedema. And Naso recalls her mom, a pathologist, writing: “Your father and I will fix you.”

Against ethical standards, Sherry’s dad, a pediatrician, prescribed her medications. While she did work with oncologists, who failed to detect her cancer in a visit just four months before she died, she relied heavily on her parents too—to the extent, Naso thinks, that her symptoms were “masked” or ignored.

One day Naso came home and saw that Sherry’s face was drooping, and she could barely move one arm. “It looks like you had a stroke,” he told her. Her mother intervened, dismissive, he says: “You’re not a doctor.”

When Naso finally persuaded his wife to get a second opinion in early 2024, they learned — too late — her cancer had returned. She had a brain tumor the size of a golf ball and died on April 24, 2024. Naso says neither parent visited the hospital or came to her funeral; they also gave up their medical licenses.

“But for Sherry’s parents’ advice,” he insists, “she would still be here.”

Scott Naso and daughter Laila at home in May.Christopher ChurchillOn the day Sherry died, Naso says, he witnessed more disturbing behavior: As his house filled with mourners, Ghoreishi and Khorsand held Laila down to administer the steroid prednisone. In court, Ghoreishi later denied Laila was held but said the medicine was for croup, a respiratory infection.

Naso — who filed a state health department complaint laying out his accusations — says Laila wasn’t ill and that, as he dug deeper, he allegedly learned she was prescribed 36 medications under her grandfather.

Their unusual medical care is a source of continued dispute: Sherry’s parents deny wrongdoing and haven’t been charged with a crime, and the judge challenged Naso’s claims while noting he wouldn’t “delve” into potential misconduct.

A Bitter Feud

By summer 2024 Naso’s in-laws “were trying to dictate where Laila was going to school, what she wore, what she ate,” he says. And they weren’t seeing her as often as they wanted. That July they successfully sought court-ordered visits and, Naso says, “began this campaign to take Laila away.” (Indeed, a family friend secretly taped him.)

Their mutual animosity was deep-seated: Sherry’s mom attacked Naso as “egocentric” and “soulless,” and in court the in-laws relied on another recording of him screaming and cursing at Sherry about them — an outburst he calls “a cry of frustration.”

From left: Sherry Naso’s parents in court in October and Scott Naso at the cemetery in May.Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty; Christopher ChurchillNaso defied the first court’s visitation order, which led to his being dragged into court and ultimately put him in contempt. He remains resolute: “I did what was in Laila’s best interest.” Finally, in April, the second judge ruled in his favor, noting he was a fit parent acting reasonably.

“They thought they were going to use money, influence and power to defeat me,” he says. “I wasn’t going to give up.”

The trial is behind him, pending appeals, “but I don’t think this is a victory,” Naso says.

His daughter is without her mom; his extended family is fractured. At times, he says, Laila will pull a stepstool from the bathroom into the hallway where Sherry’s wedding photo hangs and “talk to the picture. She says, ‘My mommy’s in my heart.’ ”

Scott Naso at wife Sherry Naso’s gravesite in May.Christopher ChurchillIn their backyard sits an unfinished three-story playhouse he and Sherry hoped to build. Drained financially after using his savings and online fundraising efforts, Naso can’t even afford a headstone for his wife’s grave.

“This battle has cost me a tremendous amount,” he says.

Nonetheless, he feels it must continue and plans to try to challenge the constitutionality of Rhode Island’s law. “Fit parents have a right to raise their child without the government interfering,” he says. “I’m hopeful this will be a landmark case throughout the country.”