Connecticut
Connecticut Marks 25 Years Of Safe Havens Act, Renews Focus On Awareness | CT News Junkie
HARTFORD, CT — Twenty-five years after Connecticut enacted a law designed to protect newborns and mothers in crisis, lawmakers, advocates, and medical professionals gathered Thursday at the Legislative Office Building to reflect on its impact and call for renewed public awareness.
The state’s Safe Havens Act for Newborns, enacted in 2000, allows a parent to voluntarily and anonymously surrender an infant who is 30 days old or younger at any hospital emergency room, with no questions asked and no fear of prosecution for abandonment, provided there are no signs of abuse or neglect.
Lori Stewart, legislative liaison for the Catholic Conference of Public Affairs and host of the event, called the bill a unifier.
“No matter where you land or fall in the political, social, economic spectrum, we can all more or less come to a point where we believe that a mother in distress and a newborn baby at risk are worth a fighting chance at a potential positive outcome,” she said.
Carl Schiessel, speaking for the Connecticut Hospital Association, said 37 emergency departments across the state are designated Safe Haven sites. At each location there are signs designating the site as a safe haven and licensed clinicians are trained to provide immediate, compassionate care to both the baby and the parent.
“This law has been a success,” he said. “We need more people to know this.”
The law was inspired by a tragedy that, according to Stewart, “rocked the state.”
In January 1988, a newborn was found dead from exposure in a Meriden parking lot. His identity was unknown, and first responders named him David Paul — “David” meaning “God’s beloved” and “Paul” meaning “Little Man.”
For decades, the baby’s name was all they had. But in 2020, Meriden police, with help from forensic genealogists, identified the child’s mother. She told investigators she had given birth alone and called in an anonymous tip. She reportedly later told police that had the safe haven law existed at the time, she would have used it.
Moved by the case, former Rep. Pam Sawyer, R-Bolton and the late legislator Anne Carbone, R-Southington, helped craft legislation modeled after a Texas law. Connecticut’s version offered a penalty-free option for mothers and limited surrender sites to hospitals — rather than firehouses or police stations — to ensure access to medical care at all hours.
“We have too many unmanned firehouses, especially in rural towns,” Sawyer said. “Hospitals are open, staffed, and ready.”
Sawyer emphasized the need to make the law understandable and accessible, especially to younger audiences.
“We knew that the best thing that we could do was to make the law so simple that it could be shared on a school bus,” she said. “Because that may be something that someone needs to hear, and if they get that info, they are going to realize that there are 24-hour emergency rooms and (the staff will not) ask any questions.”
Once a baby is surrendered, hospital staff notify the Department of Children and Families, which takes immediate custody. The parent receives a packet outlining their rights and options. If they change their mind within 30 days, they can begin the process of reunification through DCF — a process that has occurred in a small number of cases.
“This law ensures there’s a safe place when there seems to be no safe place in their world,” said Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague. “It’s not just about the infant—it’s about showing care for the parent, too.”
Rep. Leslie Zupkus, R-Prospect. spoke about the law’s personal impact.
“I have two adopted daughters from similar situations,” she said. “I always tell them their biological mother loved them very much and wanted a better life for them.”
The event also highlighted the story of Panna Krom, a high school student and daughter of Cambodian refugees who gave birth alone in 2006 at age 17. Krom concealed the birth and her newborn died. She was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Her case drew the attention of Doug Hood, a retired Yale New Haven neurologist, who spoke about how he met Krom when he was volunteering at a women’s prison, Hood took interest in her case and later connected with her parents. Hood eventually advocated for her clemency when he learned that there were many similar cases across the state.
Hood chronicled the case in his 2023 book, Daughter of Song: A Cambodian Refugee Family, Their Daughter, Crime, and Injustice.
“She wasn’t a premeditated or even an intentional killer,” Hood wrote in his book.
The law’s reach has also been bolstered by community advocates like Tiffany Quinn, who became involved in 2014 after hearing news of another infant death in East Hartford.
“This was truly a work of all of our hearts, and this came from a place of public service from the heart for what we believe is right and needed,” she said. Quinn helped launch a working group focused on public education and outreach.
Speakers honored the late Governor M. Jodi Rell, an advocate of the law.
Rell oversaw a statewide awareness campaign that included translated outreach materials, signage at hospital entrances, and public service commercials. Her son, Michael Rell, attended the event in her memory.
Rep. Tim Ackert, R-Coventry summed up the law’s legacy in simple terms.
“We always hear about ‘legislation that saves lives’ — this one does,” he said. According to Ackert, at least 59 newborns have been safely surrendered since the law took effect.
“That’s more people than were in the room today,” he said.
For more information about the Safe Havens Act, or for confidential local support and resources, contact the Department of Children and Families Careline at 1-800-842-2288 or dial 2-1-1 for confidential local support and resources.
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Even as a born-and-raised New Yorker, I have a relatively open mind when it comes to pizza. When I’m out on the road, I’ll eat at any pizzeria as long as I can see the oven from the counter and buy pizza by the slice. However, the idea of any place outside the Big Apple proclaiming itself “the Pizza Capital of the United States” is just sacrilege. Connecticut doubled down on its ludicrous claim last weekend by approving the rollout of a special “Pizza State” license plate. This is the worst affront to the craft since Chicagoans started shilling their crust-bowl casserole as pizza.
Connecticut Foodshare
Let’s actually take a look at this license plate. One peek, we all know the rules. “The Pizza State” plate features a similar blue-to-white gradient as on the standard Connecticut license plate. The aforementioned self-proclaimed moniker replaces the state’s official nickname, “The Constitution State,” beneath the plate number. To the right of the number is an image of a pizza slice ripped straight from Microsoft’s ClipArt library. It’s a flat image that looks nothing like what’s served in New Haven. Connecticut drivers will be able to pick up a “Pizza State” plate for $65.
This is a pizza war for good
The only undisputedly good aspect of the “Pizza State” license plate is that its introduction will help feed Connecticut’s hungry. According to CT Insider, the $28.6 billion budget bill approved by the Connecticut General Assembly last weekend, which authorized the plate, also directly appropriated funding to Connecticut Foodshare. The sitewide food bank will also receive $50 from each $65 license plate fee, as it continues to provide millions of free meals to food-insecure people.
Back to the pizza debate at the heart of the matter. Governor Ned Lamont declared Connecticut the country’s pizza capital back in 2024 as part of a marketing campaign to promote the state. That declaration could have grounds for war in a different century, but individual states apparently don’t fight wars against each other anymore. Connecticut had better go back to being a UConn Husky-obsessed suburb before New York makes Greenwich the next Toledo.
Connecticut
Suspect in preppy booze-fueled Connecticut party stabbing death asks court to drop charges: ‘Double jeopardy’
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The attorney for a Connecticut man who was recently acquitted of first-degree murder charges stemming from a booze-fueled brawl between prep school students is making another move to ensure his client’s freedom.
Last July, a jury found Raul Valle, now 19, not guilty of murder and intentional manslaughter in the May 14, 2022 stabbing death of James “Jimmy” McGrath. Valle was 16 at the time of the incident, and McGrath was 17.
The jury was deadlocked on lesser charges of reckless manslaughter in that trial, leading to a partial mistrial.
Valle attended St. Joseph High School in Trumbull, near Fairfield Prep, where McGrath was a junior and star lacrosse player. Prior to the stabbing that evening, both had been at a house party that involved underage drinking and a fight.
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Split image of Jimmy McGrath showing him in a collared shirt and tie and in his Fairfield College Preparatory School lacrosse uniform. (The McGrath Family)
After heading to another location to continue partying, tempers flared again and about 25 people engaged in another brawl on the front lawn of the second home, whose owners were present at the time, witnesses told police. It was during that fight that the stabbing death occurred.
Valle admitted to the stabbing, but said it was committed in self-defense and in defense of a friend.
The day after Valle’s July 9, 2025, acquittal on the most serious charges, the state filed new reckless manslaughter and reckless assault charges.
Raul Valle speaks during his second day of testimony at his murder trial in state Superior Court in Milford, Conn., on July 1, 2025. (Ned Gerard/Connecticut Post)
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Now, Valle’s attorney, Darnell Crosland, has filed a motion claiming that the reckless manslaughter and reckless assault charges constitute double jeopardy, which is unconstitutional, according to The Connecticut Post.
Crosland’s motion says the only explanation for the initial jury’s decision to acquit on the first-degree murder charge was that his client acted in self-defense.
“No other theory explains the acquittals,” he wrote in the motion.
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Defense attorney Kevin Smith delivers his closing arguments to the jury during Raul Valle’s murder trial in state Superior Court in Milford, Conn., on July 3, 2025. (Ned Gerard/Connecticut Post)
“The jury has spoken,” he continued. “The law is clear. The court must dismiss these charges with prejudice — immediately.”
The Connecticut Post reported that in an interview after Valle’s acquittal, the jury foreperson said self-defense was not discussed.
In their own filing, prosecutors disagreed with Crosland’s reasoning, according to the report.
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They described self-defense as a “justification defense,” not one that is central to the elements of the charges Valle still faces, and thus, cannot be used as an argument to have the current charges dismissed.
Kevin McGrath, father of slain prep school lacrosse player Jimmy McGrath, speaks to reporters outside the state Superior Court in Milford, Connecticut, following Raul Valle’s acquittal on July 9, 2025. He is accompanied by family attorney Michael Rosnick. (Fox News)
“The fact that the jury acquitted the defendant of murder, intentional manslaughter and intentional assaults, but could not reach a unanimous verdict as to the reckless charges, demonstrates only that the jury must have reached the conclusion that the defendant lacked the specific intent to either kill or to cause serious physical injury,” the filing reportedly said.
McGrath’s family was shocked by the results of the 2025 trial.
“I’m astonished at the results, but, you know, it’s due process,” a stoic Kevin McGrath said outside the state Superior Court in Milford, Connecticut, later describing his son as a “wonderful person.”
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“He’s entitled to it,” said McGrath. “And at the end of the day, the jury made their verdict. I’m not sure if, you know, they were in the same courtroom as we all were together, but that’s the verdict. And we’ll live with it.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Crosland for comment.
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