Left, from top: Michael Valva and Angela Pollina (Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Justyna Zubko-Valva pictured with her sons, including Thomas Valva (GoFundMe).
The mother of a New York child who died after abuse by his father and the father’s fiancée has signaled she is prepared to resolve her civil case through a settlement rather than proceed to trial.
Justyna Zubko-Valva, whose 8-year-old son Thomas “Tommy” Valva died of hypothermia in January 2020 after being made to sleep in his father’s garage, appeared willing to settle her wrongful death claim against Suffolk County for $9 million. She had initially brought a $200 million lawsuit against the county, alleging that Suffolk County Child Protective Services failed to safeguard Tommy despite her repeated reports of abuse. According to online court records, the civil matter had been set for trial in September.
The lawsuit was filed before Tommy’s father, Michael Valva, and Valva’s then-fiancée, Angela Pollina, were convicted of second-degree murder in the boy’s death. Both are now serving prison terms of 25 years to life.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Zubko-Valva’s original complaint alleged that CPS and the school attended by all three of her sons disregarded her repeated warnings that Valva and Pollina were abusing the children. Instead, after Valva accused Zubko-Valva of striking the boys and giving them a toxic “brown medicine,” CPS opened an investigation into her.
Newsday reported that the allegations against Zubko-Valva were all deemed unsubstantiated. In a 75-page letter sent in July 2019 to then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr, she appeared to warn of the danger her son faced, writing that Valva and Pollina “commit the most horrifying and inhuman form of child abuse” against her children and “lock[ed] them in freezing cold garage in a winter time.”
On the night of Jan. 17, 2020, Tommy and his brother Anthony, both of whom had autism, were punished by Valva and Pollina, who sprayed the boys with water and then forced them to sleep in an unheated garage as temperatures outside fell below 20 degrees. Tommy died from the cold overnight.
U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman, in a 2022 filing allowing Zubko-Valva’s suit to proceed, wrote: “Forcing Tommy and [his brother] Anthony to sleep in subfreezing temperatures on a cold, cement slab in the garage was so common in Mr. Valva and Ms. Pollina’s household that they referred to the garage as the ‘kid’s room.’”
CPS later dismissed the claims against Zubko-Valva after she presented evidence to the contrary, including transcripts of the father brainwashing the children to repeat phrases like “I don’t love mommy,” “mommy is mean,” and “I don’t want to stay with mommy.” Despite the lack of evidence, Korman wrote, CPS “repeatedly ignored a desperate mother’s plea for help, despite having significant evidence of Mr. Valva and Ms. Pollina’s abuse, and then pursued a neglect petition against Mrs. Valva to cover up for, and distract from, their failures.”
According to the court filing, the boys’ teachers eventually alerted CPS that the boys appeared to have “lost a noticeable amount of weight” while in their father’s custody and looked “emaciated.” Tommy’s teacher told CPS that she saw him “eat crumbs off the floor and out of the garbage” and came to school in a “wet pull-up.” CPS closed its investigation into the Valva boys on Jan. 8, 2020, 10 days before Tommy died and Valva and Pollina were arrested.
Zubko-Valva reportedly disagreed with her attorneys and did not comply with the court’s instructions when offered a $9 million settlement. Now, it appears she has had a change of heart as she faces the foreclosure of her home.
Her current attorney wrote in a court filing that “the parties have come to an agreement on a general release, stipulation of discontinuance, and proposed order” regarding that $9 million settlement amount. According to the filing, which was reviewed by Law&Crime, $7.42 million will come from Suffolk County and $1.3 million will come from Legal Aid of Suffolk County, with the remaining amount to be paid by a local school district and area attorney.
U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan, who took the case over from Korman in February, has yet to rule on the motion. The federal docket did not immediately indicate an upcoming hearing date.
