Separate Trials Ordered For 2 Charged In Death Of Thomas Valva, 8

CENTER MORICHES, NY — Ex-NYPD officer Michael Valva — whose son Thomas Valva, 8, froze to death in his Center Moriches garage in 2020 — and Valva's former fiance Angela Pollina, will now have separate trials, a judge ruled Monday.

"Out of an abundance of caution....this court has no choice but to sever these trials," Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice William Condon said, according to a report by Newsday.

Attorneys for both sides deemed the ruling a victory. Matthew Tuohy, attorney for Pollina, told Patch: "It's huge for us."

The judge's ruling came after Valva said that he had discussed his case with Tuohy, who represented him at his initial arraignment, according to Newsday.

John LoTurco, attorney for Valva, also lauded the decision: "We are very pleased that judge Condon granted our motion for severance," he said. "Our application became more evident once Mr. Tuohy's conflict arose, so the court felt compelled to amend his original decision of a dual trial. We feel vindicated because from the beginning our position has been for severance based upon the clear antagonistic defenses between Valva and Pollina. The court's new ruling is fair and prudent."

Of Valva's accusation that he'd discussed the case with him, Tuohy told Patch: "This shows the kind of guy he is. He tried to say that he and I had confidential talks. He brought this up two-and-a-half years later?"

Tuohy maintained that his initial meeting with Valva was "so quick that they didn't even log me into the sheriff's room. The reality is, what he's saying is patently false."

To that end, Tuohy said that he and Valva's attorney's have all worked together to achieve severance and two separate trials. "Don't you think they would have brought this up earlier?"

Of the decision to grant two trials, Tuohy said: "That's huge. Just sitting next to him, you get kind of caught up in his guilt. You cannot negate the psychological impact that has on people. You're associated by the people who you hang around with."

Also, Tuohy told Patch, now that the trials will be separate, he will have the chance to "see what unfolds. All of his acts are going to be on display. It's so much better for my client. This is tremendous."

Tuohy explained that now that the trials have been severed, Pollina's trial will take place after Valva's, which is slated to begin after his jury selection, likely next month. And, with two trials, they are also apt to be shorter, probably one month, rather than the minimum of three months a single trial would have taken, he said.

Condon initially made a ruling in Sept. 2021 for two separate juries, when the trial was postponed.

As jury selection began last week, both defendants appeared in court before Condon. Pollina entered first, dressed in black, her dark hair long with a braid. Valva was brought in next, he wore a black jacket and a dress shirt with no tie.

The two sat as Condon told the attorneys for each that their clients had the right to be present during both jury selections; both attorneys waived that right.

In August 2021, Condon also ruled that a jury ould be allowed to watch surveillance videos of the home where Thomas froze in the garage.

After Thomas' death, then-Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini unsealed five-count indictments against Valva and Pollina. Valva and Pollina were arrested Jan. 17, 2020, and 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. Both remain jailed without bail.

In February 2020, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Kerriann Kelly painted a grim depiction of the day Thomas died; he was left overnight in the frigid garage with no blankets as temperatures outside plunged to 19 degrees, she said.

At the time of Thomas' death, he and his two brothers, and Pollina's three girls, all lived in the home.

At a pre-trial hearing held in 2021 for Valva and Pollina before Condon in Riverhead, Suffolk County Police Detective Norberto Flores recounted the day he was called to the Valva home when a call came in about the son of "a member of service" Valva; the child had reportedly fallen in the driveway. Flores said he went straight to the hospital, where he heard that Thomas' temperature was recorded as 76.1 degrees F.

Valva told Flores that he turned his head and when he looked back, he saw Thomas "face-down on the driveway," and said he thought maybe his shoelace had become untied, Flores said. Valva told Flores that when he got to Thomas, he had scrapes on his face and was crying, and had "pooped his pants." He then took Thomas through the garage and into the basement bathroom to "clean him up," Valva told Flores.

Thomas, Valva told him, was "complaining about being cold and was a bit wobbly on his feet," so the shower became a warm bath, Flores said. "His condition worsened so he went to get Angela," Flores said.

When he returned, Valva said Thomas has become unconscious and was slumped over, so he took him out of the bathtub, wrapped him in blankets, and brought him into the living area, Flores said.
"Then he stopped breathing," and Valva called 911 and began CPR, Flores said.

A recording of the 911 call Valva made was also released.

The call was played during court proceedings at the time. "I need an ambulance immediately,"
Valva was heard saying. "My son's not breathing."

Valva was heard telling the 911 operator that Thomas had fallen down on concrete on the way to the bus and "banged his head." He said he'd put Thomas in the shower to "help him out a little bit."

In the recording, Valva was heard counting, as if doing chest compressions during CPR and telling the operator that Thomas' stomach was "filling up a lot" with air.

Valva's defense has maintained that Pollina was the one who put the boys in the freezing garage while he was at work, something Tuohy said was "not true." He said he believed Thomas' death was a tragic accident and he did not want to paint a narrative that depicted the "dad as a devil. . .he tried to save Thomas." But, Tuohy said, he believes Valva "thought the kids needed tough love — because he [Thomas] was on the spectrum, he needed a harder hand. That was the mistake there."

Thomas and his brother Anthony, 10, were undernourished, begging for food, and foraging through the garbage at school because they were so hungry, the assistant Suffolk County district attorney said in February 2020. 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 and 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.

Thomas' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva had pleaded for help on her Twitter page before her son died. In 2020, Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million wrongful death suit. She has been joined by scores of supporters at rallies and marches since her son's death, demanding "Justice for Thomas."

Zubko-Valva did not immediately respond to a request 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.

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.