A Family Court judge in Warwick, Rhode Island, on Thursday dismissed a petition by two retired physicians who had sought visitation with their 4-year-old granddaughter, Laila, ending a rhode island grandparents visitation case that had turned on a secret recording and a bitter family split. Judge Felix Gill approved the motion to dismiss and said there was no way the trial could continue.
The grandparents, Dr. Siavash Ghoreishi and Dr. Jila Khorsand, had asked the court for time with Laila over the objection of her father, Scott Naso. Gill said it would be in the child’s best interests to see her maternal grandparents and said Ghoreishi and Khorsand had loved and cared for her since she was born, while also noting they were the connection to her late mother, Shahrzad “Sherry” Naso.
But Gill said the grandparents failed to clear the state law hurdle requiring them to prove that Naso was unreasonable in refusing visitation. He called a secret audio recording made by a friend of the grandparents two months after Sherry Naso died the grandparents’ “fatal flaw.”
The recording came from a June 2024 visit when two sisters who were family friends of Ghoreishi and Khorsand met with Naso and Laila and were recorded on an iPhone by Lili Bahrami during a nearly three-hour visit. The sisters said they wanted to know what happened to Sherry Naso, their childhood friend. Naso told them he believed his in-laws’ medical care cost his wife her life, that their relationship was toxic, and that he had been left dealing with masses of prescriptions Ghoreishi had written for Sherry Naso and Laila.
He also told the sisters that he believed his in-laws misdiagnosed signs that Sherry Naso’s cancer had returned and discouraged her from seeking care. Naso said he believed they controlled his wife, interfered with the marriage, and should not be around Laila. He said he feared they wanted to make him appear to be an unfit parent and use their money to take away the child. He added that he knew it sounded crazy, but that Khorsand had “sent people to spy” on him.
Bahrami later sent the recording to Ghoreishi and Khorsand, and they submitted it as evidence while the trial was still underway. Gill said the audio supported Naso’s concerns and his decision to block visits. He described it as “an invasion of privacy” and “an overstep,” and said the grandparents had not established, clearly and convincingly, that Naso’s refusal was unreasonable.
The ruling leaves the family split where it has been for months: Gill said he believed visitation would have been in Laila’s best interests, but the law required the court to defer to a fit parent unless grandparents could meet a high evidentiary burden. On Thursday, that burden was not met, and the petition was dismissed.
