State subpoenas vaccine records for about 750 kids tied to Amityville nurse, prompting court challenges

The state Department of Health has sent subpoenas to more than 100 school districts asking for vaccination records of about 750 children, as it continues to investigate the extent of what it alleges was widespread falsification of childhood vaccination records by a former Amityville nurse practitioner — prompting some parents to go to court to prevent the release of records.

Parents in the Glen Cove, East Islip, East Quogue, Northport-East Northport, Massapequa and Bellmore districts — as well as one in Westchester County — have filed petitions to quash subpoenas that the health department sent to the districts seeking vaccination records as part of its investigation of Julie DeVuono and her former practice, Wild Child Pediatrics.

One judge has denied the attempt to quash a subpoena, but two others issued temporary orders until the cases could be reviewed further.

DeVuono already admitted selling more than $1.2 million in fake COVID-19 vaccine cards and in June was given 840 hours of community service to avoid a 6-month jail sentence.

The state health department Monday voided the vaccination records of 133 Long Island children, and one child from Orange County, because it said that DeVuono had falsified them. The records involve more than 1,500 separate vaccine shots, including boosters, the health department alleges.

The state is continuing to investigate further potential fraud, health department spokeswoman Erin Clary said Friday in an email. The state has said it can't identify the school districts subpoenaed. But in addition to the districts where parents have filed petitions, one subpoena was to Malverne schools, and another, according to the Syosset attorney for the plaintiffs in all the legal cases, James Mermigis, was to Westhampton Beach.

Danielle Rysedorph, an attorney for the health department, argued during an Aug. 29 hearing for two of the cases that "we have determined thousands of records are fraudulent," according to a transcript of the hearing.

The state already has electronic immunization records by name, and Mermigis said parents do not object to the districts providing paper records from Wild Child. After the filing of petitions, the state in two cases — Bellmore and Northport-East Northport — agreed to limit its request to Wild Child records.

Mermigis said parents object to the districts handing over vaccination records from other health care providers, communication related to the submission or receipt of immunization records, and any requests for vaccine exemptions — as the state’s subpoenas have requested.

"Most of the families have nothing to hide, but they're doing it out of principle that a state agency just can't go into somebody's personal private records and run amok," Mermigis said.

But Rysedorph argued at the hearing that the state is required by law to ensure the accuracy of immunization records, and the issuance of the subpoenas "is about determining which records in our system are fraudulent."

Rysedorph said the paper records that Wild Child gave to parents to provide to schools, the full vaccination histories of the children — including from other providers — and any approvals of medical exemptions could help indicate which records are accurate and which are fraudulent. Any communications related to the records "might also have red flags on them," she said.

"This is completely about the provider," she said. "It is not about going after children and their families."

But Mermigis, in an interview, said the effect will be that children whose vaccination records are voided may be excluded from school, even though their parents insist their kids are already vaccinated. None have been excluded so far, he said.

Mermigis said that the state has not provided evidence that DeVuono falsified childhood vaccines.

"You can't take away a right like a kid's right to an education without even giving a reason saying why," he said.

DeVuono’s Garden City attorney, Jason Russo, said his client, who now lives in Pennsylvania, said she never falsified childhood vaccines.

DeVuono was scheduled to appear Sept. 9 in an online hearing before an administrative law judge on health department charges that she had falsified at least 226 vaccination records for at least 26 patients — allegations that could have led to fines of up to $452,000. That hearing was postponed until Nov. 19, primarily because of "new investigative findings and the potential for additional charges," Clary said.

But, Russo said, the state has never "substantiated any of the allegations."

Clary said the state determined many of DeVuono’s childhood vaccination records were fake through, "among other things, witness interviews and [a] review of hundreds of records." Asked to provide more details, Clary said Friday, "We cannot comment further due to the ongoing investigation and pending litigation."

Mermigis said all of the plaintiffs told him that they saw DeVuono stick needles in their children's arms to vaccintate them.

The Glen Cove case, which was filed on Tuesday, is the most recent on Long Island. The judge in that case, Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Thomas Rademaker, agreed to hear a request Sept. 18 by a parent of two children in the Glen Cove City School District seeking to quash a subpoena for her children’s records, preventing Glen Cove schools from turning over records to the state, and preventing the state from using those records if it already obtained them. He declined Mermigis’ request to issue a temporary restraining order.

Asked if Glen Cove already has turned over records or plans to do so, Glen Cove Supt. Maria Rianna did not respond directly, but said in an email, "We are working with the guidance of our attorneys to follow legal mandates."

In Massapequa, the judge ruled the case was moot because the state had already reviewed records that were turned over.

Suffolk County Supreme Court Judge Frank Tinari dismissed the East Islip case on Monday, after previously issuing a temporary restraining order. He wrote that the subpoenas were not "a fishing expedition," as Mermigis alleged, and instead were only for "those records already voluntarily submitted to the School District."

Mermigis, though, pointed to Tinari’s statement in his ruling that DeVuono had pleaded guilty to falsifying childhood vaccination records — which she has not — as evidence that a basis for his decision was wrong.

With Jim Baumbach and Lisa L. Colangelo

By David Olson

david.olson@newsday.com@DavidOlson11

David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.