Pollina Trial: Valva's Ex 'Rattled' As Scores Of Jurors Dismissed

LONG ISLAND, NY — Jury selection began Wednesday for the trial involving Angela Pollina — former fiancée of Michael Valva, an ex-NYPD officer found guilty in the murder of his 8-year-old son Thomas— and scores of prospective jurors were excused, saying they couldn't remain impartial.

According to Matthew Tuohy, Pollina's attorney, there were four different panels of jurors of "many, many people," with about 86 left; the judge ordered another 100, he said. Dozens were dismissed.

The jurors were vetted on a number of issues, including whether they could remain impartial, whether they had medical issues or trips planned and couldn't complete the trial, and other matters, Tuohy said.

"In my opinion, it went really well," he said.

Questioning of the jurors that remain will begin tomorrow, with opening arguments expected anytime next week from Monday to Wednesday.

On those who were dismissed, Tuohy said it was a sign of the times.

"This is where we are in society," he said. "I'm glad that they're being honest — they're being so manipulated, swayed by the news, for the most part, that to say, 'I can't be impartial, I can't be fair,' thank God they were honest."

However, hearing so many say they couldn't be impartial was "disheartening" for his client Pollina, Tuohy said.

"She was definitely taken aback by how many people couldn't listen to both sides and be open-minded and impartial. That's upsetting, how people rush to justice. It definitely rattled her," Tuohy said. "She got emotional and seemed visibly rattled."

But Tuohy said, he hopes those that "stick around will be honest, too."

He added: "I feel great. I feel like people are going to be fair, do the right thing. It's going to be hard but people are going to come together, as difficult as this is, and do what's right. That's the way the system works."

Pollina, Tuohy said, "didn't commit the act. She's innocent of killing the boy."

Tuohy said when it comes to a child, people want to protect that child; most would die for their child, he said. "When something like this happens, it impacts us so much, people get so emotional. They lose sight of being open-minded. They want someone to pay. We have to get past that."

His job, Tuohy said, is to "thread a needle. Get the right people on there. I keep saying that we don't live in a Third World country. We have to follow the laws and get past that mob mentality. 'Innocent until proven guilty' seems to be a lost art today."

Tuohy spoke with Patch in the days leading up to jury selection.

"I think we will win," he said previously. "Valva did it."

"We're getting ready to go trial," Tuohy told Patch in a past interview. "One of the things that we've learned is that the jury found Michael Valva guilty. Michael Valva committed the act — he's guilty and she's not. Michael Valva and she are diametrically opposed."

Valva, along with his then-fianceé Pollina, were arrested Jan. 24, 2020, and charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Each faced 25 years to life in prison, and both pleaded not guilty.

Jurors convicted Valva of second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child in the death of his son Thomas, who froze to death in his father's garage in 2020. He was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars.

During Valva's trial, jurors heard emotional testimony from teachers, administrators and others, who painted a picture of Thomas and his older brother, both with autism, living in a "house of horrors," where they were beaten, starved, sent to school in urine-soaked pullups and made to sleep in a frigid garage with no blankets or pillows, according to Suffolk Assistant County District Attorney Keriann Kelly.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said his office stands ready for Pollina's trial.

"This case is not over here. This case will continue and we will continue to seek justice," Tierney said.

Of Pollina, Tuohy said: "She did not commit the act. He did it. The prosecution spent a tremendous amount of time vilifying her actions and words in the months prior. The reason they're doing that is because they don't have her committing the act."

During Valva's trial, one witness, a plumber, said he saw Pollina throw a child down the stairs. There was also evidence shown of texts reflecting Pollina's frustration with the incontinence of Thomas and his older brother and her stating that she did not want them in the house. Valva's defense team painted an image of Valva as a man stressed over finances, who had nowhere to go with his boys if he had to leave the home he shared with Pollina.

"As much as they don't like her, if you're going to charge her with anything, they might as well charge the cleaning lady, too," Tuohy said. A cleaning woman was heard on the video arriving at the home on the morning Thomas died; she testified at Valva's trial.

"It becomes a mob mentality because she's romantic with the guy," Tuohy said, of Pollina. "She certainly made mistakes with the boys — however, she did not commit the act."

His goal, Tuohy said, is to get jurors to say, "You know what? We don't like some of the things she said, but she didn't do it." He said he hopes to find jurors with the "emotional intelligence to say they are going to follow the law."

He added: "We're a nation of laws. We're not going to convict her of something she didn't do."

On the morning Thomas died, Tuohy added, it was Valva who brought Thomas into the backyard, naked, in 19-degree weather and washed him with cold water; Thomas then began falling. He died of hypothermia, according to the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office.

Discussing the trial ahead, Tuohy said: "People are tough. We're at a stage now where people don't want to follow the law. They're saying, 'Lock her up! Who cares?'"

He added: "We've got an old-fashioned fight coming up. I'm really going to advocate for her." Comparing the upcoming proceedings to Valva's trial, Tuohy said: "It will be a different vibe when I'm in there."

Thomas and his brother were forced to sleep in the frigid garage as temperatures outside plummeted to 19 degrees, prosecutors said. When he died, Thomas' body temperature was 76.1 degrees, 20 degrees lower than it should have been.

Witnesses took the stand during the trial, where the jury learned that the two boys had been sleeping on the cold floor, and eating their meals in the garage alone while the rest of the family, including the dog, were gathered in the warmth upstairs.

Teachers recalled the boys coming to school in urine-soaked clothes, wearing pull-ups and cold, always cold, their hands and faces red and chapped. And, they said, the boys were starving, crying in hunger and searching the trash and floor for crumbs.

Defense attorneys, however, maintained that Polina was the dominant person in the relationship, whose "trigger" was the boys' incontinence.

Looking back to September 2017, when Valva and Pollina moved in to 11 Bittersweet Lane in Center Moriches, with both Thomas and his brother autistic and finding it difficult to communicate, the boys were "punished if they didn't use their words," given no food, the prosecution said.
Also, although both boys had been toilet trained when they began living with Valva and Pollina in 2017, by 2018, they were back in pull-ups. Due to their accidents, they were forced to sleep on the floor, on pads meant for training dogs, Assistant District Attorney Laura Newcomb said.
And, she added, there are the texts. Newcomb read one that said the boys, if they refused to listen, would be put out in the snow.

Or another: "I will beat them until they bleed," Newcomb read. And, texted Valva to Pollina: "When I get home I'm going to f------ handcuff him," Newcomb said.

Witnesses, including teachers at Thomas' school, have sobbed on the stand as they recounted seeing Thomas and his brother starving, cold, with bruises and scratches, and eating crumbs from the trash and floor.

Showing a photo of Thomas from June, 2019, taken at school with a bruise on his face, Kelly countered: "Take a look at the expression on his face. It tells you everything you need to know. Look into his eyes. The child was living in a house of horrors."

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.