Scotty Valens

Scotty Valens was a Philly homicide detective and Lilly Rush's partner. He transferred to Homicide from West Detectives in the fall of 2003, replacing Lilly's first partner, Chris Lassing. Young, cocky, and full of himself at first, he's known for his various romances but he nonetheless quickly earned the rest of the squad's respect.

Background

Scotty was the son of Ramiro and Rosa Valens, born in the 1970's. He grew up idolizing his older brother, Mike Valens, with whom Scotty shared a bunk bed and who looked out for him. As a child, Scotty witnessed Mike being sexually assaulted by their boxing coach, Fitzpatrick, but kept this secret for years, even after the coach was indicted for molesting other young boys.

By 1998, Scotty had made Detective and was assigned to the West Precinct under Sergeant Manny Fernandez. That year, Scotty infiltrated the operation of a major drug dealer named Cortez. Using the name "Alvaro", Scotty's job was to ferry Cortez's drug mules from the airport to a motel, where Cortez's lieutenant Ramiro would have the women regurgitate the condoms of heroin they had ingested. Scotty would eventually become fond of one of these women, Ana Castilla, who deduced that he was not who he said. Scotty started develop feelings for Ana but she rejected him because he told her that he had a girlfriend, Elisa, who wanted to marry him but he didn't. Scotty tried to help Ana and even put the operation at risk by giving her his undercover number at the precinct to call if she was ever in trouble. He would never hear from Ana again, however, and she was found murdered in an alley soon after.

Relationships

Elisa (her last name is unknown) was his childhood sweetheart. Scotty revealed to Lieutenant John Stillman that he and Elisa were once engaged before she began suffering from schizophrenia. It's also suggested Elisa's illness was just an excuse because Scotty wasn't sure if he wanted to marry her; even when Elisa was discharged and her health improved for several months, he showed no real interest in moving forward with their relationship. He was unfaithful to Elisa but he had known her for many years, and still felt affection and compassion for her; despite their dispassionate relationship, Scotty was probably by her side because her suffering moved him and he wanted to help her. It's very likely that Ana previously saved Scotty and Elisa's relationship by suggesting that he take it seriously. They remained in a relationship of sorts, living together at times. Elisa annoyed Scotty by calling many times a day when he was working. He kept their relationship hidden from his colleagues until she once approached him and Lilly, introducing herself and embarrassing Scotty in front of his partner. Later, he apologized to Lilly but she realized that Elisa was jealous because she didn't know Scotty had a beautiful partner. Elisa's frequent relapses wore on Scotty and in late 2004, she was once again hospitalized. Her condition seemed to be getting better but Scotty decided break up with her. Afterwards, he expressed interest in Lilly's sister, Christina Rush, and told her that Elisa was no longer his girlfriend. Unexpectedly in January 2005, Elisa's body was found floating in the Schuylkill River by officers from Scotty's old precinct, including Anna Mayes. Upon being informed of Elisa's death by Stillman, Scotty was stunned but, in the beginning, he received the news calmly. However, he insisted she must have been murdered, as her apparent 'suicide note' recited only the happy times in their relationship. Scotty was guilt-ridden for a long time because Elisa committed suicide when he left her. Thus, he held onto his belief that she was killed ever since, insisting on keeping a box on her with the other cold cases despite the evidence and everyone else's belief that her apparent suicide was just that. On a tip from Anna, Scotty questioned a possible suspect in Elisa's case but to his disappointment, it turned into a dead end. Afterwards, he threw away Elisa's suicide note into the river.

Shortly after Elisa's death, Scotty started dating Christina. What started as a one-night-stand grew into a relationship of sorts, with Christina helping draw Scotty out of his guilt over Elisa's death. Their relationship quickly turned into co-habitation after Christina was kicked out by Lilly, though it came to an end shortly after when she was fingered for credit card fraud by NYPD Detective Mark Phillips. Phillips picked up on Scotty's lingering guilt due Elisa's suicide, suggesting that he must be going through some rough times to not see Christina for what she was despite being a cop (though that might not be entirely true as Scotty wanted to believe Christina because he felt something special for her, even before Elisa's death, and him taking him a while to decide to date Christina was due to Lilly's opposition). Phillips warned Valens that he also knows the powerful attraction a pretty girl like Christina exerts on a man. As it turned out, Phillips's instincts were correct; despite Scotty's insistence that Christina was innocent of any wrongdoing, he returned home to find a note from her indicating that she had gone on the run to avoid the warrant out for her arrest.

In 2005, Detective Josie Sutton was assigned to Homicide from the Northeast detectives squad and Scotty quickly expressed interest in her, but she rejected his advances. After Josie transferred to homicide that September, Scotty's feelings didn't lead to anything. She took a leave of absence and apparently transferred out shortly thereafter.

Scotty finally met his match in ADA Alexandra Thomas. Both were very upfront and confrontational, which led to them clashing heads over more than one case, including that of Clayton Hathaway, who had been raped and murdered by a pedophile and whose wrongly convicted father, Mitch Hathaway, was taking revenge by killing other pedophiles. Scotty, having witnessed his older brother's molestation years earlier, felt little sympathy towards the victims, whereas Alex, whose office was in danger of backlash for the murders of pedophiles who they had convicted, advocated doing everything possible to ensure their safety, including removal of access to the Megan's Law website where Mitch was procuring their names and addresses. After Scotty unknowingly tipped off Mitch about the identity of his son's murderer in a moment of anger and carelessness, the perpetrator was also nearly killed. Later as Scotty was devastated after Lilly was seriously wounded by a gunshot, Alex comforted him. As part of her job, which she took very seriously, she reported this to the Internal Affairs office of the Philly PD. After being angrily confronted by Scotty, the two started dating in late 2007. They pretended to barely tolerate each other in public but were very passionate behind closed doors. After some time, Scotty was taking their relationship seriously and wanted to go public but Alex refused. Scotty's willingness to bend the rules in favor of victims clashed with Alex's dedication to her job when she revealed to her boss and later the FBI that a mad bomber had missed his intended target (a detail that Lieutenant Stillman wanted to be kept quiet), leading the FBI to publicly announce the information and form a task force with the Philly PD to stop the bomber. As Scotty predicted, this led the bomber to make another attempt on the victim's life, nearly killing his family, which Scotty blamed Alex for. This apparently marked the end of their relationship.

Months later, Scotty expressed interest in a young lab technician, Frankie Rafferty. Unfortunately, that romance soon hit a roadblock as well when he discovered Frankie was married, albeit separated, after a confrontation with her estranged husband, Billy Rafferty. Scotty was eventually able to reconcile with her, but was later disappointed and had his pride wounded when Frankie told him she and Billy were going to attempt to repair their marriage. Frankie nevertheless consoled Scotty after Will Jeffries was shot and the two apparently slept together (something Scotty would later regret). A month later, Frankie told Scotty she and Billy were divorcing. Scotty, however, had grown weary of their "back and forth" relationship and decided to end things.

Family

Scotty's father Ramiro came to the United States from Cuba at the age of 15. His entire family was from Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came into power and threw many who objected in jail or worse; Ramiro's family was one of the lucky ones. They still don't consider the US home no matter how long they have been here.

Scotty apparently had a relative who died of AIDS.

In 2006 after being persuaded by ADA Thomas, Scotty approached his brother about the Fitzpatrick case, only for Mike to vehemently deny any knowledge of it. Scotty accepted this until weeks later, when Mike had a nervous breakdown, soon followed by the suicide of one of their childhood friends and the only witness in the molestation case. Faced with no other choice, Scotty admitted what he witnessed, persuading Mike to testify, with his brother by his side.

In 2009, Ramiro approached his son for help after Rosa was injured in a purse-snatching. Scotty talked with her but she refused to say more or even press charges. Investigating on his own, Scotty realized his beloved mother was actually raped, which caused him much grief and horror. Finding the perpetrator, Jimmy Mota, turned into a personal quest for him. Scotty caught the him and sent him to prison but when he learned the rapist would soon be free, Scotty made sure that he couldn't harm anyone else.

Career

Scotty's rogue attitude has worked against him more than once. Despite possibly saving Lilly's life by defying the orders of a SWAT commander and breaking perimeter when she was being held hostage at gunpoint, he was investigated by Internal Affairs for shooting the hostage taker and eventually given a 30-day suspension, which was served by Stillman who didn't want Scotty's record tarnished. Though Lilly was shot and seriously wounded, she might have been shot a second time and killed if it weren't for Scotty's presence. He was devastated when Lilly was hospitalized and this deep anguish reflected strong feelings for her.

Episodes related to Scotty:

• Love Conquers Al
• The Plan
• Discretion
• Blank Generation
• Frank's Best
• Offender
• Stealing Home
• Hoodrats
• Sanctuary
• The River
• The Hitchhiker
• Jurisprudence
• One Fall
• Almost Paradise
• Shattered