Valva 'Wasn't Crying' While Describing His Son's Death: Detective

CENTER MORICHES, NY — Michael Valva, the former NYPD officer charged after his son Thomas, 8, froze to death in the frigid garage of his Center Moriches home, did not cry when describing the details that led up to the tragedy, a lead detective in the case said in court Thursday.

A pre-trial hearing continued for Valva and his fiance Angela Pollina before Supreme Court Justice William Condon in Riverhead; the hearing has been held to determine whether an application by the defense to suppress audio, video and other personal items found in the Valva home should be upheld; the defense said a "warrantless search" was conducted by the Suffolk County Police Department, something the prosecution has denied.

Throughout the proceedings, Valva, wearing a blue shirt and black jacket, sat with his head down, never looking up at the judge while Suffolk County Police Detective Norberto Flores recounted the day he was called to the Valva home. Pollina, wearing glasses, an olive shirt and black jacket, also listened as Flores spoke.

While describing the morning Thomas died, Flores said Valva was "matter-of-fact. He wasn't crying," while being questioned but he believed he did put his head down and cried at the end of the interview.

Valva and Pollina were arrested on Jan. 17, 2020. Valva and Pollina were charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, they face 25 years to life in prison. Both remain incarcerated without bail.

Remembering the day, Flores said it was "a slow" morning before the call came in about the son of "a member of service," Valva; the child had reportedly fallen in the driveway. Flores said he went straight to the hospital, where he heard that Thomas' temperature was recorded as 76.1 degrees F.

When he went to interview Valva in the family room at Long Island Community Hospital, where Thomas was pronounced dead, Flores said he wanted to be "respectful" of the "grieving" Valva and Pollina while interviewing them.

He spoke to them separately, he said.

Valva, Flores said, told him that Thomas had gotten up later than the other children — Valva's three sons and Pollina's three daughters were living in the home. He said Thomas, after getting dressed, said he wasn't hungry and asked to go outside and play. Valva then told Flores that he turned his head and when he looked back, he saw Thomas "face-down on the driveway," and said he thought maybe his shoelace had become untied, Flores said.

Flores said he later heard Valva telling NYPD officials who came to the hospital to support him that maybe Thomas had an aneurism.

Valva told Flores that when he got to Thomas, he had scrapes on his face and was crying, and had "pooped his pants." Valva then told Flores that Thomas and his brother were both autistic and had difficulty with potty training, so they wore pullups at night which were put into trash bags outside near the patio each day so those soiled clothes could be sent to the laundry and not put into the washing machines at home.

He then took Thomas through the garage and into the basement bathroom to "clean him up," Valva told Flores.

Thomas, Valva told him, was "complaining about being cold and was a bit wobbly on his feet," so the shower became a warm bath, Flores said. "His condition worsened so he went to get Angela," Flores said.

When he returned, Valva said Thomas has become unconscious and was slumped over, so he took him out of the bathtub, wrapped him in blankets, and brought him into the living area, Flores said. "Then he stopped breathing," and Valva called 911 and began CPR, Flores said.

A recording of the 911 call Valva made was released Wednesday.

The call was played during court proceedings Wednesday. "I need an ambulance immediately," Valva was heard saying. "My son's not breathing."

Valva was heard telling the 911 operator that Thomas had fallen down on concrete on the way to the bus and "banged his head." He said he'd put Thomas in the shower to "help him out a little bit."

In the recording, Valva was heard counting, as if doing chest compressions during CPR and telling the operator that Thomas' stomach was "filling up a lot" with air.

When Flores was asked if Thomas' mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva, had been notified, Valva told him that there were orders of protection in place because they were in the midst of a "contentious divorce" and told him that his divorce attorney had notified her. He later said Valva, a corrections officer, was "unstable, and capable of anything" when she'd learned Thomas had died, Flores said.

Valva, Flores said, also told him that there were "numerous" Child Protective Services "reports against him, all unfounded."

When asked about cameras in his home, Valva told Flores that Pollina "handled that," he said; Valva did not object to police going to the home, he said. Valva, Flores said, was not advised of his rights because he was not under arrest.

After speaking with Valva, Flores said he examined Thomas, customary practice before the medical examiner arrives, to ensure there were no "obvious injuries to make it suspicious" such as gunshots or stab wounds. Thomas, he said, had visible abrasions to his forehead, his left temple, both elbows and knees, and his flanks.

Next, Flores said he spoke with Pollina, who was in a treatment bed after having said she felt sick. "She was visibly upset," he said. Pollina, who had lived at the Center Moriches home for two-and-a-half years, spoke of her daughters, her twins, then 11, and an 8-year-old. She'd driven the girls to school and then returned home to the house, which she said was "hectic" with trying to get the children ready for school.

Valva told Pollina that Thomas had fallen; when she went to the basement, Flores said, she saw that Thomas was "shaking uncontrollably, his legs were kicking and his teeth were chattering. When she put her hand near his mouth he bit her finger," Flores said.

When Flores told Pollina the importance of the surveillance cameras and asked for her permission to see them, she agreed and gave him the username but then said she couldn't remember the password, he said. Flores said he then "began to fill out the 'permission to search' form" but at that moment, Pollina became distraught about her daughters and who would pick them up from school. Flores said he told her neighbors would help. "She seemed upset, so I stopped the interview" and put away the form, he said.

Next, Flores headed to the Valva home where crime scene vans and SCPD members were present, he said; he walked through the driveway and home and noted the cameras around the house, he said.

Valva and Pollina later arrived and when he asked Pollina, she told an officer to accompany her upstairs to her bedroom where the password was in a notebook in her bedroom; she gave permission and never objected to police looking at the cameras, Flores said. He also said Pollina signed and dated the "permission to search" form.

Later on Thursday, SCPD detective Michael Ronca said a video taken with a neighbor's surveillance camera did not show a child falling on the cement outside the Valva home.

In February 2020, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Kerriann Kelly painted a grim depiction of the day Thomas died. According to police, he was left overnight in the frigid garage in his father's home.

Valva's attorney John LoTurco told Patch on Wednesday the defense has asked to suppress all Nest video and audio, as well as physical items, recovered from the Valva home "based upon the warrantless search conducted by the Suffolk County Police Department. The fourth amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits 'unreasonable searches and seizures' without a search warrant and without a search warrant exception recognized by the law."

He added: "The police claim the exception was exigency or emergency, yet we contend the emergency had ended once the ambulance departed to go to the hospital and all police personnel had vacated the residence. The police later returned to the residence, without a warrant and searched the residence. . .they later contend they had consent to seize the Nest video cameras from Angela Pollina. According to Pollini's lawyer, she will testify at these hearings that no such consent took place."

Prosecutors have said they were given permission to search, according to Newsday.

After Thomas' death, Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini unsealed five-count indictments against Valva and Pollina. Thomas and his brother Anthony, 10, were undernourished, begging for food, and foraging through the garbage at school because they were so hungry, Kelly said. Teachers asked Pollina and Valva to send more food to school with the boys, but that did not happen, she said.

Videos taken in the house a day and a half before Thomas died showed both boys in the garage, with Thomas shaking from the cold, saying he needed to use the bathroom, and looking at the camera "with pleading eyes for someone to help him," Kelly said. On the night Thomas died, when was 19 degrees outside, he was left in the freezing garage with no blankets, she said.

Thomas' mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva had pleaded for help on her Twitter page. In 2020, Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million wrongful death suit; she has been joined by scores of supporters since her son's death, demanding "Justice for Thomas."

The pre-trial hearing will continue Friday. LoTurco said he would abstain from further comment until Friday when the DA will rest their case.