A 65-year-old man linked to the alleged sex-trafficking of a Long Island teenager who went missing for nearly a month was indicted by a grand jury, Suffolk County prosecutors revealed Thursday.
Francis Buckheit, who was arrested on rape and kidnapping charges over the weekend, is now scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment next week in the case of 14-year-old Emmarae Gervasi, who went missing from her Patchogue home on Dec. 9 and surfaced last week on a boat docked in Islip.
Buckheit’s lawyer Danielle Papa chatted with reporters afterwards.
“He’s emotional. He’s said he maintains his innocence,” Papa told The Post. “These are very serious charges, but as all individuals who are charged with crime, he deserves the presumption of innocence. He plans on fighting these charges as much as he can.
“There’s a lot more of a story than what’s being told,” Papa said.
Police and prosecutors have not confirmed Buckheit’s link to Gervasi’s mysterious disappearance, but the teen’s father said his daughter was sex trafficked and plied with drugs by “unsavory characters.”
Frank Gervasi said Emma has struggled with drug abuse in the past and was wearing a monitoring ankle bracelet when she left the family home and got into a car with an unidentified man.
Surveillance video shows the girl knocking on doors at a Bohemia motel the next day before disappearing again — until her dad got a tip and rescued her from a boat an Islip marina.
He said his daughter is traumatized and recovering from the weeks-long ordeal.
Prosecutors have not revealed whether there could be additional suspects in the case.
The indictment against Buckheit, which authorities said includes a Jan. 3 drunken driving arrest, is expected to be unsealed when he returns to court next week.
Meanwhile, Papa said she’s still trying to sort out the charges against her client.
“I’m going to have further conversations with him to find out what exactly it is that he is saying [happened],” the lawyer said outside court. “The case is relatively new. We’re still conducting our investigation, and there’s a lot more work that needs to be done at this particular point.”