Steven Walker. Photo courtesy of the New York State Police.
A Wright man was arrested last week for allegedly pulling three healthy permanent teeth from the mouth of a developmentally disabled eight-year-old girl in his care.
Gallupville resident Steven Walker, 34, has been charged with two counts of felony assault and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
According to a news release by state police troopers, the child's missing teeth were discovered after she complained about mouth pain in school. The girl's regular dentist examined her, and found that three of her permanent teeth had been forcibly extracted.
The child has also been examined by a forensic odontologist and an oral surgeon. Police believe the extractions were done with pliers, and that they occurred about three weeks to a month ago.
Investigators have had difficulty communicating with the child, who is able to speak, but developmentally disabled, said senior investigator Drew McDonald of the New York State Police.
"She has limited communicative skills. She has never spoken in my presence," McDonald said. "She'll nod or shake her head, or shrug, or grunt, but we don't get full answers."
McDonald said that a search of Walker's house last Thursday turned up two teeth, and implements that could have been used to forcibly extract the teeth from the girl's mouth. There was no medical reason the teeth needed to be removed, McDonald said.
"As described by the regular dentist, these were otherwise healthy permanent teeth," he said.
Because of an error in the initial press release sent out by state police, earlier news reports of the arrest erroneously reported that the girl was in foster care, and that Walker is her foster father. In fact, McDonald said, he is her legal guardian.
The girl was not in the foster care system when the alleged assault occurred, said Paul Brady, commissioner of the Schoharie County Social Services Department.
"The Walkers were not foster parents with this agency. They have never been foster parents in the state of New York, to my knowledge," Brady said.
Police said the girl has been removed from Walker's home, and placed in the care of Schoharie County Social Services. For now, McDonald said, she is in a respite home -- a temporary situation while the case is unfolding.
"These charges have to be adjudicated before they can take away [Walker's] legal guardianship," McDonald said.
Walker was arraigned in Richmondville town court and remanded to the Schoharie County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash or $5,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in Wright town court tonight -- Monday, Nov. 25 -- at 7 p.m.
Update, 11/26: The Albany Times-Union's Bryan Fitzgerald attended Walker's court hearing on Monday, and sheds more light on the horrific case in a recent news story. Police arrived at Walker's house last week to find it "disheveled and decaying," Fitzgerald writes:
The home was so vile it immediately stoked concerns among State Police that it would have been unfit for the 8-year-old even if she not been allegedly assaulted there.
"It was in an advanced state of disarray," said Drew McDonald, a senior State Police investigator in charge of the case, of the Route 443 home. "It was in terrible condition."
Walker's other children are still in the house, Fitzgerald reports.
