Portion Of Thomas Valva $200M Wrongful Death Suit Can Proceed: Judge

CENTER MORICHES, NY — A judge has ruled that portions of a $200 million lawsuit filed by Justyna Zubko-Valva after her son Thomas, 8, froze to death in a Center Moriches garage at the home of his father, former NYPD Officer Michael Valva, can move forward, a judge has ruled.

According to Manhattan Attorney Jon Nurinsberg of Norinsberg Law, representing Zubka-Valva, U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman has ruled that portions of the suit accusing Suffolk County and Child Protective Services could proceed. He allowed both federal and state claims against Suffolk County and state law claims to continue against the school district, Norinsberg said.

A motion to dismiss the complaint came from the county, the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, and CPS employees, Newsday reported.

Zubko-Valva filed the suit against Suffolk County officials and school representatives; Norinsberg announced in 2020 that the the civil rights action was filed in the the Eastern District of New York on her behalf.

Norinsberg spoke to Patch about the ruling: "We think that the judge's decision is really excellent. It provides a really clear framework for moving forward with the case and holding all of these defendants accountable. We're very pleased with the judge's decision."

Next, he said, the discovery portion of the proceedings will ensue, including taking depositions and testimony under oath "so we can find out exactly what really happened."

The suit was filed against several caseworkers, investigators and supervisors at Suffolk County Child Protective Services; the East Moriches Union Free School District and the child's principal and school superintendent; Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Hope Schwartz Zimmerman; attorneys Donna McCabe and Ethan Halpern, who were assigned to represent the Valva children; Randall Ratje, the county attorney for the Suffolk County Department of Social Services; and Michael Valva and his fiancee, Angelina Pollina.

In February of 2020 Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Kerriann Kelly painted a grim depiction of the day Thomas died. According to police, he was left overnight in a frigid garage in his father's home, where Pollina also lived.

Former Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini unsealed five-count indictments against Valva, 40, and Pollina, 42. Valva and Pollina, of Bittersweet Lane, were arrested Jan. 24; both were charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, they face 25 years to life in prison.

Thomas, 8, and his brother Anthony, 10, were undernourished, begging for food, and foraging through the garbage at school because they were so hungry, Kelly said. Teachers asked Pollina and Valva to send more food to school with the boys, but that did not happen, she said.

The boys were sent to school with their hands and cheeks red and cold to the touch, Kelly said. By their second year in the East Moriches School District, the boys were wearing diapers that were often soiled, she said. They were told not to see the nurse but did not, because they were "in fear" of Pollina and their father, she said. The boys, she added, slept in a room with no access to a bathroom and when they soiled themselves, were punished by being made to sleep on the cold cement floor of the basement, with no blankets, no mattress, no pillows and no extra clothes to keep them warm.

Videos taken in the house a day and a half before Thomas died showed both boys in the garage, with Thomas shaking from the cold, saying he needed to use the bathroom, and looking at the camera "with pleading eyes for someone to help him," Kelly said.

On the night he died, it was 19 degrees outside and he was left in the freezing garage with no blankets, she said.

"Tommy's death was not only foreseeable, but completely preventable," according to the complaint.

John LoTurco, the court-appointed attorney for Michael Valva, said in 2020 that he did not represent Valva in defense of his civil case but would be reviewing the claims and paperwork with his client.

"We do concur with his estranged wife that there was systemic failure by CPS in the lack of their ability to remove the children in a timely manner. After we've reviewed the evidence, we have come to the conclusion that the children should have been managed more properly by CPS as well as the school system," LoTurco said at the time. "But that has no impact on our defense in the criminal matter — and we continue to zealous and aggressively assert his innocence as it pertains to the criminal indictment and the top charge of murder in the second degree," he added.

According to Zubko-Valva's attorney, "the tragedy started on September 6, 2017, when Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Hope Schwartz Zimmerman unlawfully, and without due process, a hearing or supporting evidence against Ms. Zubko-Valva, gave custody of her three children, including Tommy, to Michael Valva, even though a prior judge in the case had barred Valva from overnight visits."

Zubko-Valva provided evidence to the court, Child Protective Services, the police and the children's attorneys several times that showed the "severe abuse" of her children by Valva and Pollina, the complaint said.

Zubko-Valva repeatedly warned those named in the suit for three years that the boys were being "tortured, beaten, starved," as well as suffering abuse, the complaint said and she said she provided "overwhelming, irrefutable evidence of the graphic, horrific abuse, including documentary proof, audio recordings and transcriptions, photographs and medical reports."

Zubko-Valva also gave her children's own recorded statements regarding "the enormous physical and mental abuse that they were suffering at the hands of Valva and Pollina. Ms. Zubko-Valva specifically warned ... that her children were in 'enormous danger of losing their lives by Michael Valva and Angelina Pollina,'" the complaint said.

Rather than taking action to protect the children, as required under New York State Social Services Law, the defendants named in the suit "hid the truth about the children's health and fabricated false, misleading and dishonest reports about Ms. Zubko-Valva and her children," refused to remove the children from Valva and Pollina's home, and suppressed and destroyed evidence that gave Valva and Pollina "a green light to continue the severe abuse," the complaint says.

"This case is horrific and tragic," Norinsberg said. "Tommy was a small, defenseless boy with a great smile. My client repeatedly warned and showed anyone who would listen that her children were being starved, abused and tortured. Instead of helping the children, the defendants flagrantly violated their legal duties under New York State Law and exhibited a shocking indifference to the children's health, safety and welfare.

"This was truly a conspiracy of silence. Valva was protected because he was a police officer. If he had been a normal citizen, he would have been arrested and put in jail. But because he was a police officer, the defendants looked the other way and let him get away with this horrific abuse. Little Tommy would still be alive if these defendants had done their jobs properly."

A media representative for Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone issued a statement in 2020 on the suit: "We are unable to comment on pending litigation at this time."

In February, 2020, as lawmakers and the public demanded answers, Bellone announced the members of a new internal review committee that he said would be "performing a top to bottom review of the Thomas Valva case in the Department of Social Services."

Bellone also announced the establishment of an external task force to review all Child Protective Services policies and procedures as they relate to children with autism and other developmental disabilities. Deputy Presiding Officer Kara Hahn and Deputy County Executive Jon Kaiman were named as co-chairs of the task force.

Zubko-Valva, according to Nurinsberg, is seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages to make sure that "the repeated, brutal violations of her children will never happen again to another family, and that the legal system will be changed to do more to protect innocent children from the abuse and torture" Tommy endured for years.

Zubko-Valva's goal is to see "Tommy's Law" passed. It would improve how custody and mandatory child abuse reporting is handled and investigated, as well as create a foundation that would help protect other children like Tommy, her attorney said.

A representative for Suffolk County immediately returned a request for comment on the judge's ruling; Matthew Tuohy, an attorney for Pollina also did not comment immediately.