A New York teen was allegedly raped ‘more than 30 times’ by his female counselor – whose nickname is ‘Big Foot’ – at an upstate juvenile detention facility.
The alleged victim, now 21, was only 17 years old when he was sent to Brookwood Youth Facility in Claverack – about 114 miles from Manhattan – where he met the facility’s associate psychologist, Maya Hayes.
Hayes reportedly held ‘frequent’ counseling sessions with the teen, whose name has been withheld, in her private office, according to the teen’s legal filing.
The then-juvenile victim claimed the sexual abuse began just three months after he arrived at the Claverack facility.
He also alleged the abuse did not end until he had been raped more than 30 times, according to the lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, obtained by the New York Post.
Hayes ‘used and exploited her position of trust and authority … to her disgusting advantage and her own depraved benefit … to sexually abuse and exploit as many children as possible under the guise of performing routine and necessary counseling sessions,’ the teen claimed.
Facility staff apparently knew what was going on, he alleged.
‘Are you doing things with Big Foot?’ workers allegedly asked the teen, according to the court filing.
‘We see you in there with Dr. Hayes doing nasty stuff,’ staffers allegedly told the accuser.
It is not clear as to why Hayes has been nicknamed ‘Big Foot.’
The suit also claims that Hayes told the teen that she dreamed about him, and that she ‘had a previous guy inside Brookwood’ who resembled the victim and ‘broke her heart,’ the suit claimed.
The counselor even conned the victim’s parents into sending $100 payments to her CashApp, seemingly to pay for his food and hygiene products, according to the lawsuit.
The New York State Police arrested Hayes back in April on 65 counts of criminal sexual acts in the third degree and rape.
She pleaded not guilty and was later released. Her case remains pending.
The unnamed teen is suing Hayes, along with a dozen other Brookwood staffers, for unspecified damages for failing to stop the ‘depraved’ abuse in a separate civil suit.
‘When I was at Brookwood I was sexually assaulted for months by my psychologist while youth development specialists and administration knew and did nothing to stop it,’ he said in a statement.
‘The responsibility lies with New York State employees who knew the sexual abuse was happening and enabled it,’ the teen’s lawyer, Evan Brustein, who is representing four other victims who said they were also abused by the counselor, said.
The searing suit comes just days after a married Illinois teacher, who was accused of sexually assaulting a teenager she was tutoring, claimed the boy came on to her because she is ‘good looking’ and ‘cared too much.’
Christina Formella, 30, was arrested on Sunday and charged with sexual assault and abuse for having an inappropriate relationship with a then 15-year-old student in December 2023.
The boy came forward over the weekend when his mother bought him a new phone and discovered text messages between the two.
The shocking messages revealed the student and teacher had been in a relationship and investigators said they discovered additional evidence corroborating the claim.
Prosecutors alleged Formalla and the victim were in a classroom at Downers Grove South High School for a tutoring session before school when she allegedly sexually assaulted him.
However, during her initial police interview, Formella denied ever having sex with the teenager.
‘[Formella said] everybody comes after her because she is good looking and she is just a good person who cared too much about [the boy],’ according to court documents viewed by DailyMail.com.
When confronted with the text messages, Formella claimed the teen broke into her phone and sent them to himself to blackmail her.
‘She claimed that one day, [the boy], had grabbed her phone unattended, had entered her passcode… had sent the message to his phone, had then deleted the message from her phone, and had saved it to his phone as blackmail,’ the documents said.
Authorities have not released any further information about the alleged sexual assault, but DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin called the allegations ‘extremely disturbing.’
‘It is alleged that she used her position of trust and authority as a tutor and a coach to sexually assault a minor student,’ he claimed, noting: ‘The type of abuse and behavior alleged in this case will not be tolerated.’
Formella has worked as a special education teacher at Downers Grove South High School since August 2020, and has been a volunteer soccer coach for both the boys’ and girls’ teams since 2021.