Witness Says Ex-NYPD Officer Gave Son, 8, Who Froze, CPR

LONG ISLAND, NY — A witness at the murder trial of Michael Valva, an ex-NYPD officer whose son froze to death in his father's garage in 2020, testified that she saw him attempting to give the boy CPR.

According News 12, cleaner Tyrene Rodriguez testified that she helped Valva give CPR to Thomas, both on the couch and on the floor. She said that Thomas was "lifeless," and that he was cold, clammy, wet, blue with blue lips and naked, according to News 12.

Thomas and his brother, who had autism, were forced to sleep in the frigid garage as temperature 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, prosecutors added.

Valva, along with his then-fiancee Angela Pollina, who will have a separate trial, were arrested Jan. 24, 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.

According to Newsday, Valva gave Thomas "chest compressions" on the day he died, but prosecutors countered that Valva waited 50 minutes before dialing 911. During earlier testimony, surveillance video was shown in the courtroom, with Valva heard screaming at Thomas, asking him, "Are you alive?" and to "Wake up!" Newsday has said.

One video, Newsday reported, showed Valva swinging his arm and shouting as a child screamed; other clips showed the boys lying and sitting in the garage, according to the report.

Surveillance video recorded at the home in the hours before Thomas' death was deleted after he died, according to a report by Newsday. Testifying earlier in the proceedings, Suffolk police detective Guy Gerig said he was given the username and password to the Nest system the day Thomas died, but that once he accessed the system, most of the footage prior to 1 p.m. was erased, Newsday reported

Former teacher, Arlene Klein, said she has been following the case and reading articles about the testimony. "Many people dropped the ball on this one," she said. "Perhaps a revamp of policies are in order. . .Only the children suffer."

Speaking out about his client, Valva's attorney John LoTurco issued a statement after Rodriguez' testimony. He said that the housekeeper, Rodriguez, described Valva as "frantic but focused during the heartbreaking realization that Thomas was not breathing. We contend that these actions by our client demonstrated that although Michael Valva is clearly culpable of child maltreatment, he never foresaw or intended that his son would die as a consequence of being sheltered as punishment in the garage."

During opening arguments, Assistant District Attorney Laura Newcomb told the jury that Thomas, who had autism and incontinence issues, had an accident and soiled himself, she said. Valva, she said, "began screaming, 'Stop pooping. I should make you eat this ---t.'"

Then Valva took Thomas outside into the cold and hosed him down with icy water from the spigot, she said. Thomas began falling head-first onto the concrete. "What did this father do?" she asked, pointing at Valva. "Did he try to help him? No. He began yelling, 'F--- you, moron, walk!'"

And later, he said of Thomas, "He's cold. Boo f------ hoo," Newcomb said.

Thomas died a few hours later of hypothermia, according to the Suffolk County Medical Office' determination.

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, she said.

The boys were starving at school, eating crumbs from the floor and half-eaten food from the trash, Newcomb said. In a year, his brother had lost 20 pounds and Thomas gained only 1 pound, she 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 wee wee pads meant for training dogs, Newcomb said.

"When that didn't work, they were forced into the backyard, alone in a tent, while the rest of the family slept upstairs in their warm beds," she said.

The boys were next "exiled to the two-car garage with the unwanted items. A life-size Halloween werewolf. A Christmas tree. No heat. No insulation. By the time of Thomas' death, the boys were living out of the garage."

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.
The jury will see proof, Newcomb said, because 11 Bittersweet Lane had a Nest video recording system that saved information to the Cloud.

"You can see the abuse they endured" at the hands of their father, 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: "When I get home I'm going to f------ handcuff him," Newcomb said.

Defense attorneys, however, maintained that Pollina was the dominant person in the relatiionship, whose "trigger" was the boys' incontinence that sparked her anger. They said Valva was in financial trouble, and had nowhere to go with his boys, if he left the house where he lived with her.

Last week's testimony followed witnesses, including teachers at Thomas' school, who have sobbed on the stand as they recounted seeing Thomas and his brother starving, cold, with bruises and scratches, and eating crumbs from the floor.

Special education teacher Katelyn Edwards said before classes were dismissed for school breaks and weekends, she was worried about the older Valva boy, because "she was afraid he might die."

"I did say that," Edwards said. "I thought he was going to die."