Boy, 8, Froze In 'House Of Horrors'; Dad Pleads Not Guilty: DA

RIVERHEAD, NY — Clutching the prayer card from her son's funeral and wearing a button with his photo and a blue ribbon for child abuse, Justyna Zubko-Valva sobbed audibly in court in Riverhead Thursday as Assistant District Attorney Kerriann Kelly painted a grim depiction of the day Thomas Valva, 8, died — after, according to police, he was left overnight in a frigid garage in his father's Center Moriches home.

Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini unsealed five-count indictments Thursday against Michael Valva, 40, and Angela Pollina, 42. Valva and Pollina, of Bittersweet Lane, were arrested on Jan. 24; both have been charged with second degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, Sini said. If convicted, both face 25 years to life behind bars, Sini said.

Both pleaded not guilty at the court proceedings.

Speaking first of Pollina, Kelly said she demanded the boys call her "Mommy," and had reportedly "screamed and yelled," at them, treating them "nothing short of miserably." Pollina, Kelly said, was "cruel, callous, wanton and evil."

Thomas, 8, and his brother Anthony, 10, were undernourished, begging for food, foraging through the garbage at school and for crumbs because they were "so hungry," Kelly said. Teachers, she said, asked Pollina and Valva to send additional food to school for the boys, but that did not happen.

Both boys, she said, were sent to school with their hands and cheeks red and cold to the touch; by their second year in the East Moriches School District, Kelly said, the boys were wearing pull-ups to school, often soiled. They had been told not to see the nurse, Kelly said, and did not, because they were "in fear" of Pollina and their father. 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, no extra clothes to keep them warm.

The boys, Kelly said, were physically abused; during one incident, Kellly said, Pollina "dragged Thomas and threw him down the stairs."

Videos taken in the house a day and a half before he died, she said, showed both boys in the garage, Thomas shaking from the cold and stating that he needed to use the bathroom, looking at the camera "with pleading eyes for someone to help him," Kelly said.

On the night he died, she said, it was 19 degrees outside and he was left in the freezing garage with no blankets.

Pollina "showed no compassion," Kelly said. Kelly said Pollina took video clips on her phone of Thomas shaking and sent them to Valva. Valva, a NYPD officer, was working that night, and Pollina told him, "I'm going to sleep."

She reportedly asked Valva what to do about Thomas the next day, if he wasn't going to go to school, because she had to leave as soon as the school bus picked up the other children.

According to Kelly, Valva replied, "F--- that piece of ---- Thomas. He's not going anywhere."

Both boys, she said, were physically and psychologically abused and Pollina "did nothing to help."

On the day he died, when the EMTs arrived, Kelly said Pollina stayed in the bathroom "doing her hair" while Thomas was "ice cold and lifeless." She arrived at the hospital, Kelly said, 45 minutes later.

Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice William Condon remanded Pollina back to jail without bail. Her Huntington-based attorney Matthew Tuohy had asked for $50,000 cash/$100,ooo bond, stating that his client has maintained that "she is innocent."

Born in Nassau County and a Suffolk County resident, Tuohy said Pollina had never been in trouble before her arrest, had custody of her three girls, and had medical issues that needed attention. She is due back in court of Feb. 24.

Next, Valva faced Condon. Valva, who had a previous attorney who is no longer on the case, had asked for Legal Aid representation. Attorney Dan Russo conducted an investigation and said Valva had the means and was able to retain private counsel, something Condon urged he secure. Until then, the issue of bail was deferred.

Valva, Kelly said, was a NYPD officer who took an oath to protect residents and also, "had a duty to protect his children," she said. But instead, he was "cruel, callous, wanton and evil" to his two boys, who were autistic but high-functioning, she said.

Staff at they boys' elementary school said they were "sweet and loving children. Unfortunately, he didn't see his children in the same light," Kelly said. The children, according to school reports, came to school without breakfast, punished for not "using their words" or for not "calling Angela 'Mommy.'"

They foraged through the garbage, with Anthony losing 20 pounds in a year and Thomas gaining only one pound over a period of months — and both failing to thrive, Kelly said.

Teachers would bring clothes in for the boys "in secret," for fear of the children incurring further punishment, Kelly said.

Both boys would come in with their hands and faces "red and icy," she said. Thomas cried at recess, not wanting to go outside because he did not want to be colder, Kelly said; Anthony refused to take off his jacket even in a warm room and when sitting in the sunshine, she added.

The boys came to school soiled and soaked in urine; one day, Kelly said, Thomas was so soiled his pull-up was "squishy."

Valva, Kelly said, "slapped" and "punched" Thomas, picking him up the wrists so that his feet dangled above the floor, and threw him down the stairs. Both boys, she said, had bruises and scratches on their faces, given to them "by their father."

After a while, she said, the boys were told by Pollina and Valva to "make up stories" to hide the abuse. When Thomas died and Anthony was questioned, he repeated over and over, she said: "He sleeps in his bed and he stays in his room."

On the morning when Valva called 911, Kelly said, "he kept changing the story," saying first that Thomas had fallen in the driveway and then, that he'd run into the door.

Video taken from the "house of horrors," Kelly said — despite the fact that Valva tried to delete the footage when authorities arrived, and changed the password — showed abuse including one chiild being "beaten with a closed fist."

Audio recordings, Kelly said, also captured the other kids asking why Thomas couldn't walk. Pollina, she said, told them, "because he's hypothermic," which came from washing in cold water.

"F------ moron," Valva said on the audiotape, according to Kelly. "I told him to stand up . . .and what did he do? He head dives into the concrete." Kelly added that Valva was also heard saying that Thomas had "face planted" twice, something the injuries to his face confirmed, she said.

On the tape, Pollina was also heard saying, "You know why he's falling," the DA's office has said. "Because he's cold. Boo f------ hoo," Valva reportedly said, according to Kelly. "Now he's a bloody f------ mess."

In the complex video system, the garage was labeled "the kids' room," Kelly said.

When he was brought to the hospital, Thomas body was 76.1 degrees; he died of hypothermia when his organs failed, Kelly said.

When he was found, Thomas was naked except for a pair of sweatpants pulled down below his knees, Kelly said.

When asked about how he was, after authorities arrived, Valva reportedly said, "I've been through more stressful things than this," Kelly said.

After the court proceedings, Bay Shore based-attorney Robert Del Col, appointed to represent Valva at Thursday's proceedings, said: "Cases like this with the horrific allegations that are made, test the fabric of our judicial system. The public's passion is understandable. However the cry for vengeance eventually must succumb to the pursuit of justice."

Speaking through tears outside the courtroom, Zubko-Valva said: "It was difficult to sit in a courtroom and listen to, obviously, all the facts related to my son Thomas' death. I just kept thinking about how much abuse all my children encountered . . . for years, day after day, day after day, being deprived of food, shelter, the basics, what very child should be provided with. And to think about all the institutions who failed to help him. Who completely did nothing. Now everybody is trying to do the right thing, but where were you when I begged you for help when you could have saved my child's life?"

After the court proceedings, Sini held a press conference. "This is a horrific case. Years of . . abuse and neglect that most of us, all of us, cannot wrap our heads around which tragically culminated in the death of Thomas," Sini said.

All aspects of the case are being thoroughly investigated, he said, including all the circumstances surrounding the case, including putting together a thorough timeline of all contact the family had with any governmental agency.

"What happened here is heinous. It's clearly a house of horrors. A child is dead — and we simply can't understand how this could happen. How another human being could do this — much less as human being to their own child," Sini said.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said Homicide Squad detectives have seen their share of tragedy. "But I'm sure I can speak for all of them, that this is one of the toughest cases that they have ever encountered," she said. "It is still difficult to comprehend the actions of Michael Valva and his fiancee Angela Pollina, the two people who should have been caring for and loving Thomas Valva unconditionally treated him and punished him in ways that were cruel and inhumane — and ultimately, cut this child's life off before it ever really began."

Valva, Hart added, "took an oath as a police officer to protect and serve the people that he didn't even know, yet he couldn't even provide a safe and nurturing environment to his own children."

Speaking to reporters at court Thursday, Zubko-Valva said: "I know Tommy was a fighter, who always stood for the truth and that's why he died — for the truth. He's a hero. . .But how much could he handle? He was only 8 years old."