Child abuse death of Thomas Valva, 8, spurs new reforms in Suffolk County

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (PIX11) -- Eight-year-old Thomas Valva died after months of abuse at the hands of his father, an NYPD cop, and his father's fiancée. Now, a year after the last of the criminal trials that sent the two to prison, officials in the Long Island county where the boy suffered and died have announced reforms to the system that they say let him down. County leaders said that the changes will help save children's lives, or at least improve them. At the same time, though, they said that more changes need to be made. 

Thomas Valva died in January 2020 from hypothermia, after his father, NYPD Officer Michael Valva, and Valva's fiancée, Angela Pollina, forced the boy and his brother to sleep on the concrete floor of the unheated garage at their home in Center Moriches, when the outdoor temperature was 19 degrees.

The incident that killed the child happened after his and his brother's schoolteachers had reported their mistreatment over and over again to the child protective services office of Suffolk County. However, because the boy's father was a cop, that helped to prevent him from being removed from his home to a safer place, leaders in Suffolk County said on Thursday.

Led by County Executive Ed Romaine and County Prosecutor Ray Tierney, elected officials announced a list of changes. 

One of them, called blind removal, means that caseworkers are restricted from knowing any personal details about the background of a child whose case is reported. 

Romaine said that it may have helped to prevent caseworkers from being overly cautious about removing Thomas Valva from his abusive home.  

"They should just look at the evidence, blindly," Romaine said at a late morning news conference announcing the changes. "Justice wears a blindfold." 

In addition to "blind" removal, the county's child protective services will get a larger budget, and higher pay for caseworkers, Romaine announced. Also, there will be greater coordination among different units of the protective services agency. He also said that a new division of quality management is being created, to promote transparency.

A grand jury that heard the Valva case issued an 80-page report that made recommendations. Among them was the fact that on 11 different occasions before Thomas Valva's death, his teachers and other adults reported to caseworkers that there was evidence of abuse. Each report was ruled unfounded, possibly because of the boy's father's law enforcement status. Each unfounded ruling resulted in the report being sealed from any investigators, including prosecutors, from knowing about them. 

Tierney, the county prosecutor, said in an interview that that needs to change, so that in "instances where there are allegations of abuse, and instances of past abuse, that law enforcement can look at those instances, so they can do a full investigation."

Tierney called on state legislators, some of whom were in attendance at Thursday's news conference, to pass legislation that could make that change happen.  

The county leaders also pointed out that their main reform, the so-called blind removal rule, has been state policy since 2020. However, it was not implemented in Suffolk County, they said, until July of this year.