HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. — For months, Thomas Valva, 8, was abused by his father, an NYPD officer, and his father’s fiancée. He later died. Now, a year after the last criminal trial that sent the two to prison, the county on Long Island where the boy lived and died has made changes to the system that they say let him down. People in charge of the county said that the changes will save or at least make the lives of children better. But they also said that more changes need to be made.
Thomas Valva died of hypothermia in January 2020. His father, NYPD Officer Michael Valva, and his fiancée, Angela Pollina, made him and his brother sleep on the cold concrete floor of their unheated garage in Center Moriches, even though it was only 19 degrees outside.
The child was killed after his and his brother’s teachers had told the Suffolk County Office for Child Protection Services over and over again that they were being abused. Suffolk County leaders said Thursday that the boy’s father being a police officer helped keep him from being taken away from his home and put somewhere safer.
Members of the government, led by County Executive Ed Romaine and County Prosecutor Ray Tierney, announced a set of changes.
There is one called “blind removal,” which means that caseworkers can’t find out any personal information about the child whose case has been reported.
Romaine suggested that it might have helped to keep caseworkers from being too careful about taking Thomas Valva out of his abusive home.
At a news conference late in the morning to announce the changes, Romaine said, “They should just look at the evidence without bias.” “The law wears a blindfold.”
Romaine said that the county’s child protection services would get more money and caseworkers would be paid more. “Blind” removal is also going to happen. As well, the different parts of the protective services organization will work together better. He also said that there will be more openness by making a new section of quality management.
A grand jury that looked into the Valva case put out an 80-page report with suggestions. Some of them were that Thomas Valva’s teachers and other adults told caseworkers 11 times before he died that there was proof of abuse. Each report was found to be false, which could be because the boy’s father is a police officer. Because each decision was not based on facts, the report was sealed so that no one could read it, not even lawyers.
In an interview, Tierney, the county prosecutor, said that needs to change so that “law enforcement can look at those cases so they can do a full investigation” when there are claims of abuse or cases of abuse in the past.
Some of the state lawmakers who were at Tierney’s news conference on Thursday were asked by the governor to pass laws that would make that change possible.
The county leaders also said that the “blind removal rule,” which was their main change, has been state law since 2020. They said that it wasn’t put into place in Suffolk County until July of this year.
Source: Child abuse death of Thomas Valva, 8, spurs new reforms in Suffolk County
