FEBRUARY 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 7
VALVA CASE
AGENCY OVERSIGHT QUESTIONED
L. to R.: The boy’s father, Michael Valva, and live-in fiancee, Angela Pollina, were
charged with murder in the boy’s death. (Suffolk County Sheriff photos)
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
The tragic death of 8-year-old Thomas
Valva, whose father allegedly left the
boy overnight in a freezing garage
at their Center Moriches home last
month, has sparked another round
of tough questions for Suffolk County
authorities.
Suffolk Child Protective Services
(CPS) is the subject of an internal
probe to review its handling of the
case, county officials are conducting
an outside inquiry into agency protocols
— especially into how it handles
cases of children with disabilities,
as the victim was autistic — and the
New York State Office of Children and
Family Services is also investigating
the incident. That’s on top of the police
investigation that resulting in charges
of second-degree murder and endangering
the welfare of a child against
the father, suspended New York City
Police Department Officer Michael
Valva, and his fiancee, Angela Pollina,
both of whom pleaded not guilty
and were ordered held without bail.
The victim’s body was just 76 degrees
when he was taken to the hospital the
next morning after police said the
father reported the boy fell on his
way to school.
“Daddy says to me that I can’t listen to
you and I can’t hug you and I can’t say,
‘I love you, Mommy’ and ‘I miss you,
Mommy,’” Thomas’s 6-year-old brother,
Andrew, who also has autism, said
in in one of many videos documenting
alleged child abuse that their mother,
Justyna Zubko-Valva, posted on Twitter
before Thomas died. When asked
why, Andrew replied: “Daddy’s going
to put me outside.”
It’s not the first time CPS has come
under fire. In 2017, a Suffolk grand
jury issued an investigative report
suggesting that the understaffed
agency dropped the ball in properly
alerting foster care agencies to avoid
placing children with a man who
was accused, and later acquitted, of
sexually abusing foster children in
his care. And in 2007, a Press investigation
found multiple instances of
school officials in Suffolk abusing
CPS’ anonymous reporting system by
retaliating against parents of children
with special needs who were at odds
with administrators over students’
learning plans.
Thomas Valva was a third-grade student at East Moriches Elementary
School.
This is the county that recently had
its former district attorney and his
chief public corruption investigator
convicted in federal court of covering
an ex-police chief’s beating of a handcuffed
suspect. The attorney and the
investigator are appealing.
In the Valva case, the boy’s teachers
made about 20 calls to the state child
abuse hotline after the boys showed
up at school with signs of abuse
such as a black eye, being unfed,
and missing days at a time, the Daily
News reported. The boy’s mother also
reported allegations of child abuse in
2016 to police in Nassau County, where
the couple lived before their divorce,
but again, no action was taken. Nassau
legislators are holding a Feb. 5 public
hearing on the Valva case.
“This hearing will help us identify
any potential areas of improvement
within our departments so that they
may be corrected to prevent something
like this from ever happening
again,” said Nassau Legislator James
Kennedy (R-Massapequa).
In addition to the probes of CPS in Suffolk
and Nassau’s review, advocates are
also calling out Family Court judges
who handled the case for their role in
failing to prevent the boy’s death. A
rally was held outside Nassau court in
Mineola on the week of the boy’s funeral
calling for the judges involved to step
down. Judge Joseph Lorintz denied the
victim’s mother’s pleas to grant her custody
of the boys and even though she
insisted that their lives were at risk in
their father’s care, the News reported.
“I can’t remember everything you’re
saying because you’re saying so
much,” the judge told her, according
to the News.
The case is shaping up to be a wakeup
call that business as usual will not
stand for CPS and the Family Court
system.
“As a parent, I am horrified by what
happened to this beautiful boy,” said
Suffolk County Executive Bellone.
“As county executive, I want to know
if there’s anything else that could
have been done under existing law
to prevent this from happening.
Beyond that, I want to know if
anything in this case suggests that
changes should be made to existing
policy or law.”
IN THE NEWS
“I want to know if there’s anything else that
could have been done under existing law to
prevent this from happening,” said Suffolk County
Executive Steve Bellone.
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