Ex-NYPD Officer Valva Showed 'No Emotion' After Son's Death: Witness

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — The trial continued Thursday for ex-NYPD officer Michael Valva — charged in the death of his son Thomas Valva, 8, who froze to death in his Center Moriches garage in 202o.

A paramedic who testified Thursday and who responded to the home on the day Thomas died said Valva showed no emotion as EMTs tried valiantly to save the boy's life, according to a report by Newsday.

There were no tears, "no emotion," according to paramedic Erin Lambert, who also said that Valva also did not cry when his son was pronounced dead, Newsday added. Valva, according to Newsday post, was asked if he needed anything and responded, "No, I've been in more stressful situations."

The New York Post reported that Lambert said: “Most parents panic and freak out in a situation like that. There was nothing like that. Most of the time parents are screaming, crying, jumping on me, begging me to save their child.”

It wasn't the first time someone recalled that Valva showed no grief after the death of his son. At a pretrial hearing in 2021, while describing the morning Thomas died, Suffolk County Police Detective Norberto Flores said Valva was "matter-of-fact. He wasn't crying," while being questioned — but he believed he did put his head down and cried at the end of the interview.

Valva — along with his then-fiance Angela Pollina, who will have a separate trial — were each arrested on Jan. 17, 2020 and charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

If convicted, each faces 25 years to life in prison. Both have pleaded not guilty and remain jailed without bail.

During jury selection recently, Newsday reported that Valva cried during the proceedings.

"Michael became visibly upset in court when I reminded the jury 'not to forget that Michael lost his son,'" LoTurco told Patch. "It was a meaningful reminder that Michael is still grieving, and whatever atrocious parenting decisions he succumbed to with Angela Pollina, he loved Thomas and never intended to cause his death."

Opening arguments in the Valva trial began Wednesday in Riverhead before Judge William Condon. Assistant District Attorney Laura Newcomb described how Thomas, 8, died after spending months living in the garage with his brother.

"19 degrees," she said. "That's how cold it was the night before Thomas Valva was murdered on the morning of January 17, 2020."

Just 19 degrees, she said, and Thomas and his brother, both autistic, were forced to sleep on a cold floor with no mattress, no pillow, no blankets, where they had lived for months. "Just his body on the cold concrete all night long," she said.

Thomas died a few hours later of hypothermia, according to the Suffolk County Medical Office' determination. His body temperature was 76.1 degrees, 22 degrees lower than it should have been, Newcomb said.

Newcomb said Thomas and his brother were sent to school starving, eating crumbs from the floor and garbage, and always so cold.

There was also physical abuse, Newcomb said. The boys were slapped and punched; teachers reported red marks, scrapes and bruises, and their soiled clothes reeked of urine, she said.

Defense attorney Anthony La Pinta, in his opening remarks, said the boys struggled with incontinence, something that "caused a major conflict at 11 Bittersweet Lane . . . with Angela, who grew resentful over the urination and defecation," he said.

Pollina also grew increasingly impatient with and resentful of Michael, he said, because she did not feel he could discipline his boys. She threatened to throw Valva and the boys out and Valva was "unnerved" because he was in debt, living paycheck to paycheck, La Pinta said.

La Pinta also claimed that Thomas died from a biological reaction to Valva putting Thomas, who was cold, into a warm bath. He claimed that Thomas died from "vasoconstriction," causing blood flow away from his organs and to his skin and causing cardiac arrest, not hypothermia. "An awful tragedy. Thomas died by accident — not by murder at the hands of his father."

He added: "This was not a senseless act of evil. Michael did not want his son to die. You need to think with your head and not your heart," La Pinta told the jury.

Thomas' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva pleaded for help on her Twitter page before her son died. In 2020, Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million wrongful death suit.

Zubko-Valva has not responded to requests for comment.

In June, a judge ruled that portions of the $200 million lawsuit filed by Zubko-Valva after Thomas died can move forward, a judge ruled.