A state mental-health worker accused of committing sex crimes against a 14-year-old Long Island girl infamously victimized by a trafficking ring was forced to surface for the cameras Tuesday — to face a judge.
DeShaun McClean, 42, who works at a New York-run children’s mental-health facility, is accused of groping the girl and watching her engage in sex acts during her stay there — when she was recuperating from her heinous kidnapping.
The child, Emmarae Gervasi, had been rescued from a sex-trafficking ring Jan. 3 while on a boat docked at an Islip marina.
McLean appeared in Suffolk County’s district court for an apparent routine status update in his case Tuesday — as the media got their first look at him. He is set to return to court March 24.
While in a court building hallway, someone in his entourage got rough with the reporters and photographers clustered around him.
The unidentified pal, who wore a puffy black jacket, walked next to McLean, dressed in black pants and a gray jacket, and at one point held his arms out to block a female reporter who was trying to ask McLean if he wanted to say anything.
“Don’t touch me, sir,” the reporter said after the escort put a forearm into her chest.
A male photographer then walked up and repeated, “Don’t touch her.”
The escort in the puffy-jacketed escort shot back, “What are you going to do?”
The photographer replied, “I said don’t touch her.”
Then the camera cut away, and when it returned, the photographer was getting off the ground.
Prosecutors hit McClean of Deer Park with two counts of criminal sexual contact with a person incapable of consent and endangering the welfare of a child, court records show.
He pleaded not guilty to the trio of misdemeanors at his Jan. 4 arraignment and was cut loose on $5,000 bail.
McClean allegedly committed the appalling deeds between Jan. 9 and Jan. 28, according to Newsday.
Emmarae vanished Dec. 9 from her Patchogue home and was missing for a month before her father, Frank Gervasi, found her on the boat after the tip.
Stay up to date on Emmarae Gervasi, the missing LI teen found on a boat
Twelve people in total have been arrested for their roles in the case, including the boat’s owner, Francis Buckheit, 64, and Alton Harrell, 35.
Both men have been charged with rape, child endangerment, and kidnapping.
Authorities say Harrell, 35, was the key figure in the sickening plot, which revolved around kidnapping Gervasi, holding her for 25 days, giving her drugs, raping her repeatedly and selling her body, Newsday reports.
“This defendant set the entire chain of events that followed in motion by victimizing someone he knew as a child,” Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Dana Castaldo told the court.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Other defendants include Kevin McDonald, 20; Daniel Burke, 63; Robert Eccleston, 63; Bunice Knight, 47; Jacquelyn Comiskey, 52; and Elizabeth Hunter, 34.
McDonald, Harrell, Burke, Eccleston and Knight are all facing rape charges and related offenses, while Comiskey and Hunter have been charged with sex trafficking.
They have all pleaded not guilty during court appearances.
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