Protest Spotlights Alleged Child Abuse

“Justicia por mi hija,” Lida Llundo said into a megaphone on the front steps of the police department, as she held up a framed picture of herself and her five-year-old daughter whom she fears is in great danger. ​“Yo necesito mi hija.”

Llundo stood at the center of a Thursday afternoon protest focused on her ongoing custody battle with her child’s father — whom Llundo has accused of sexually abusing their daughter.

The protest was organized by a local women’s advocacy group called Vivan Las Autonomas, co-led by Vanesa Suarez and Nika Zarazvand.

More than a dozen protesters showed up to 1 Union Ave. to hold signs reading ​“End Child Sexual Abuse,” ​“Unidas Lograremos Justicia,” and ​“Las Niñas No Se Tocan” as they called for Llundo to be reunited with her young daughter.

Suarez and Zaravand pressed for the police department to take seriously and to fully investigate Llundo’s accusations against her daughter’s father, which they said date back to August 2022.

Time is running out, they emphasized, as the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) is currently determining who should have custody of the child.

They feared that DCF would make such a determination as early as Friday. Llundo was called into a remote meeting with a caseworker Thursday afternoon, which she took from her car as the protest began. Roughly an hour into the protest, Zaravand announced to the group that DCF has pledged to continue investigating the matter, and wouldn’t be making a decision on Friday after all.

Llundo and her child’s father, meanwhile, are scheduled to appear in family court Monday morning on Church Street for the latest hearing in a long-standing legal dispute that started as the dissolution of their marriage, and is now focused on the custody of their child.

The protesters said the child is currently with her uncle, her father’s brother, and that Llundo hasn’t seen her in a week and a half.

“Me and my daughter are suffering a huge injustice at the hands of the city,” Llundo said in Spanish, her words interpreted into English by Camila Güiza-Chavez.

“I have the right to be a mother and the police have taken that right from me without any proof, simply because I reported my daughter’s abuse,” Llundo is quoted as saying in a press release sent out Thursday morning in advance of the protest. ​“My daughter has the right to live a life of dignity and free of sexual violence. I demand justice and the return of my daughter.”

New Haven Police Department (NHPD) spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart said that the Special Victims Unit ​“is actively investigating this case,” and that Det. Samantha Romano is leading the investigation. He said that any allegation that police have closed this investigation ​“is incorrect.”

Bruckhart declined to provide further comment on the specifics of Llundo’s case, but, having previously worked as a detective in the Special Victim’s Unit, ​“I know from experience that those cases are taken very seriously, especially when they involve a young child.”

DCF spokesperson Peter Yazbak confirmed that his agency is conducting a ​“joint investigation into this matter with law-enforcement.” He also declined to provide any further details, ​“due to state and federal confidentiality laws.”

Tim Gunning, an attorney representing the child’s father, recognized that the allegations raised by Llundo and Thursday’s protesters ​“are very serious in nature.” He implied that these are part of a pattern of ​“repeated allegations that have been made against my client during the [family court] proceedings in an attempt to secure custody.”

“My client has and will continue to fight to ensure these allegations are again proven false,” Gunning wrote. ​“His only concern is the best interests of his daughter. That will always be his primary focus.”

Thursday’s protesters, meanwhile, rallied to show Llundo that she is not alone in her own fight to do right by her child. They also called for police and DCF to take the mother’s allegations seriously, to not reflexively take the side of the father, and to not place so much of a burden of proof of child sexual abuse on the five-year-old child herself.

“Lida, we believe you!” they sang. ​“Lida, we are with you.”