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A Staten Island teen was allegedly raped dozens of times by his female counselor — known as “Big Foot” — at an upstate juvenile detention facility, while staffers joked about it, he claimed in a lawsuit.
The victim, now 21, was just 17 in 2021 when he was sent to Brookwood Youth Facility, about 45 minutes south of Albany, and first encountered associate psychologist Maya Hayes, who held frequent counseling sessions with him in her private office, according to the litigation.
The sexual abuse began about three months after the accuser, whose name is being withheld by The Post, arrived, the suit claims. It didn’t end until he had been raped more than 30 times, he claimed.
Hayes, 47, allegedly “groomed and manipulated [the victim] into trusting that what she was doing had some basis in legitimate care and treatment. It did not,” he said in court papers.
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 alleged.
Staff apparently knew what was going on.
“Are you doing things with Big Foot?” workers asked the teen, according to the Brooklyn Federal Court filing. “We see you in there with Dr. Hayes doing nasty stuff,” they allegedly told him.
It’s unclear why Hayes was called “Big Foot.”
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, ostensibly to pay for his food and hygiene products, according to the lawsuit
New York State Police arrested Hayes in April on 65 counts of criminal sexual act in the third degree and rape. She pleaded not guilty, and was released. The case is pending.
The teen is suing Hayes and a dozen other Brookwood staffers for unspecified damages for failing to stop the “depraved” abuse.
“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,” the teen said in a statement.
“The responsibility lies with New York State employees who knew the sexual abuse was happening and enabled it,” said the teen’s lawyer, Evan Brustein, who is representing four other victims who said they were abused by Hayes.
A lawyer for Hayes did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
