New York City: Son, 8, of NYPD officer Michael Valva died after being forced to sleep in freez....

Valva and Pollina have since been found guilty of murder and child endangerment. Pollina’s sentence to 25 years in prison this week comes nearly four months after Valva was handed down a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years served.

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8-year-old son of NYPD officer died after being forced to sleep in freezing garage, police say

When Suffolk County police responded to a 911 call in Long Island the morning of Jan. 17, they found Michael Valva, a New York City police officer, in the basement of his home performing CPR on his son, Thomas. Valva told police the 8-year-old fell in the driveway while waiting for his school bus and lost consciousness. Thomas was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Investigators would later say that when Thomas arrived, his body temperature was just 76 degrees. His father’s story, meanwhile, was quickly unraveling, police say. On Friday, Suffolk County police charged Valva, 40, ...

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2020/01/26/nypd-officer-freezing-death/

 

Bill de Blasio says NYPD cop should 'burn in hell' for letting his eight-year-old son freeze'

• Mayor Bill de Blasio said the veteran NYPD cop accused of torturing his autistic 8-year-old son, leaving him to freeze to death 'should burn in hell'
• 'It's disgusting. It's incredibly troubling. And I don't understand how any human being does that to a child... or how a sworn officer does that,' de Blasio said
• Thomas Valva died last week after being put in the garage by his father
• Michael Valva, 40, and his fiancée, Angela Pollina, are charged with murder
• Valva's mother Justyna Zubko-Valva made several complaints to authorities
• Thomas would show up at school in dirty clothes, hungry and at times having had to soak in his own urine

Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the NYPD police officer who is accused of beating his autistic son and leaving him to freeze to death in his Long Island garage 'should burn in hell'. De Blasio said that he was disgusted when he learned of what happened to eight-year-old Thomas Valva. Officer Michael Valva, 40, is facing murder charges for the death of his son. 'When all the facts are proven, this is someone who should burn in hell,' de Blasio said. 'It's disgusting, it's incredibly troubling.' Officer Valva was charged with murder along with his fiancée, Angela Pollina, 42, ...

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7941309/Bill-Blasio-says-NYPD-cop-burn-hell-letting-eight-year-old-son-freeze.html

 

Bishop says 'the system failed' 8-year-old Thomas Valva at funeral for cop's son who froze to death

An auxiliary bishop from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre presided at a funeral Mass for 8 -year-old Thomas Valva Thursday, telling the mourners “another beautiful life was lost because of our human negligence.” The child’s body was carried in a white casket into St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Melville, followed by his mother, Justyna, and two, surviving brothers, along with dozens of other people paying respects. On Jan. 17, Emergency Medical Technicians were summoned to the Center Moriches home of Thomas’ father, Michael Valva—an NYPD cop. They found the child unresponsive, with a body temperature of 76 ...

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https://www.pix11.com/news/local-ne...va-at-funeral-for-cops-son-who-froze-to-death

 

House of Horrors Boy ‘Made the Ultimate Sacrifice’

Justyna Zubko-Valva came into St. Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic church on Long Island with the three sons to whom she had by numerous accounts been a heroically loving and selfless mother, without equal. One of the boys, 8-year-old Thomas, was in a coffin. His mother’s boundless devotion had not been able to save him from an incompetent, ultimately indifferent, and effectively misogynistic child welfare system. Thomas and his brothers had been in the custody of a monstrous father who is alleged to have consigned him overnight to an unheated garage. The father, Michael Valva, is said by prosecutors to ...

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/thoma...rrors-made-the-ultimate-sacrifice-bishop-says

 

Remembering Thomas Valva: 'His Smile Would Light Up The Room'

The day after little Thomas Valva's emotional funeral service, those who knew him are remembering his life — police say the boy, 8, froze to death after he was left in a frigid garage at his father's home overnight. They are remembering his bright smile — the moments when he was simply a happy little boy who loved to sing and read books. On Jan. 24, Suffolk County homicide detectives arrested Michael Valva and Angela Pollina, of Bittersweet Lane in Center Moriches, and charged them with second-degree murder, police said. Although his father initially reported that Thomas died after a ...

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https://patch.com/new-york/center-m...ering-thomas-valva-his-smile-would-light-room

 

A Dozen Calls to Child Abuse Hotline Did Not Save 8-Year-Old Boy

It was no secret that Tommy Valva was suffering. Over the last two years, at least a dozen calls to child protection hotlines appear to have come from worried school officials and teachers expressing concerns for the child and his two brothers, one of whom, like Tommy, was autistic. “The children are frequently hungry, beg for food and eat food out of the garbage,” one caller said in March 2019, according to documents the boys’ mother said she had obtained from the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment. Another call reported that the boys’ father forced at least ...

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/nyregion/nypd-cop-autistic-son.html

 

Ignored pleas for help and closed cases: How the system failed Thomas Valva

Whatever small measure of warmth little Thomas Valva enjoyed in his brief and brutal lifetime disappeared in the two ugly years before his death in a freezing Long Island garage. Records of repeated abuse complaints obtained by the Daily News after the autistic 8-year-old’s heartbreaking death two weeks ago showed some 20 calls from the child’s teachers to the state abuse hotline in 2018-19, when Thomas was living with his accused killers: His father, NYPD Officer Michael Valva, and the cop’s fiancee Angela Pollina. The repeated allegations of neglect and mistreatment from teachers in East Moriches also involved the dead ...

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https://www.nydailynews.com/new-yor...0200202-4ekupjsjyzbifkpk24em4aemmq-story.html

 

‘Daddy’s gonna put me outside’: New court docs show repeated warning signs before 8-year-old son of NYPD transit cop freezes to death [VIDEO]

The 8-year-old boy who froze to death in Long Island after he was forced to spend the night in a garage was repeatedly deprived of food and spoke of harsh punishments at the hands of his father, according to newly obtained court records. As CrimeOnline previously reported, Thomas Valva died on January 17, the day after he spent the night in an unheated garage when temperatures in Center Moriches dropped to 19 degrees. Thomas’s father Michael Valva, a NYPD transit officer, and his fiancée Angela Pollina have been arrested and charged with murder. Thomas’s mother Justyna Zubko-Valva has two other ...

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https://www.crimeonline.com/2020/02...n-of-nypd-transit-cop-freezes-to-death-video/

 

Prosecutors outline ‘house of horrors’ abuse that led to Thomas Valva’s death

A grand jury indictment was unsealed Thursday against the couple, charging both with second-degree murder in the death of Michael Valva’s 8-year-old son, Thomas. The pair is accused of forcing the boy to spend the night in a freezing garage last month. The next morning, he was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Officials say Thomas died of hypothermia. Prosecutors outlined what they say was a long history of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Michael Valva and Pollina. They say Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, were denied food. They described how the boys ...

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http://longisland.news12.com/story/...horrors-abuse-that-led-to-thomas-valvas-death

 

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

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 an even more 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 ...

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https://patch.com/new-york/center-m...-froze-house-horrors-dad-pleads-not-guilty-da

 

Monster NYPD cop charged with killing his son kept custody AFTER judge suspected he was beating children

The warning signs around NYPD Transit Officer Michael Valva were undeniable: A year’s probation for physically punishing his autistic sons, his continued abuse of the kids despite an agreement to clean up his act, indications the kids were underfed and undernourished. None of it convinced a Suffolk County Family Court judge to remove the boys from the family’s Center Moriches home, where 8-year-old Thomas was left to freeze to death last month on the concrete floor of their bitterly-cold Long Island garage. The monstrous Valva, who described the doomed Thomas as a “piece of s--t” in a text message two ...

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https://www.nydailynews.com/new-yor...0200209-rntylamcvjhbjcaw2suu5gbwqe-story.html

 

'Wall of silence': Children linger in troubled homes despite abuse signs, advocates say

Despite the abuse signs — a black eye, the malnutrition, a welt on his head, bruises from excessive spanking — Suffolk County's social services agency and the court system left Thomas Valva in his father's home. Several Long Island child protection advocates said Child Protection Services caseworkers had seen enough of the boy's condition that they should have pushed to take the 8-year-old from the home. But removing a child from a home is never easy, especially on the kid, child advocates said. The act of being taken from their home, only to be thrust into a foster home or ...

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https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/suffolk-child-protective-services-valva-case-1.42008725

 

Thomas Valva's Mother Files $200 Million Lawsuit Against Dead Boy's Father, Stepmother, N.Y. Judge

The mother of Thomas Valva — the 8-year-old Long Island boy who died in January from severe hypothermia after allegedly being forced to sleep in the garage of his father's home — has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the boy's father, stepmother and several local officials. She is seeking $200 million in damages. PEOPLE was furnished with a copy of Justyna Zubko-Valva's civil suit, which was filed in New York and names the principal at Thomas' school, the East Moriches Union Free School District, and the district's superintendent as defendants, along with Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Hope Schwartz ...

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https://people.com/crime/thomas-val...ion-lawsuit-dead-boy-father-stepmother-judge/

 

Mother Files $200M Lawsuit Against Son’s Father, County Officials in LI Boy’s Freezing Death

The mother of a Long Island boy who died after years of alleged physical and verbal abuse at the hands of his father filed a $200 million wrongful death lawsuit against her son's father, his fiancee and a slew of county officials who she claims are responsible for her son's death. Justyna Zubko-Valva filed the lawsuit on Tuesday against several Suffolk County Child Protective Services caseworkers and investigators, as well as her son Tommy's school district, the judge, his father Michael Valva and Angela Pollina, among others. She believes that it was a system of failures on many different parts ...

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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loc...-officials-in-li-boys-freezing-death/2468116/

 

NYPD Officer Charged In Death Of Son Who Froze Resigns: Lawyer

The father charged in the death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva — the little boy who froze to death in a frigid Center Moriches garage —resigned Wednesday from his job with the NYPD, his attorney said. Michael Valva, 40, and his fiance Angela Pollina, 42 were arrested Jan. 24; both 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. According to John LoTurco, attorney for Valva, until Wednesday, the former NYPD officer had been suspended without pay; there was an arrangement made with the NYPD ...

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https://news.yahoo.com/nypd-officer-charged-death-son-004925098.html

 

NYPD cop resigns 9 months after ‘leaving autistic son, 8, to freeze to death’ – but ‘murderer’ will keep pension

AN NYPD officer facing murder charges for the death of his autistic 8-year-old son resigned from the force Wednesday -- but still gets to keep his pension. Michael Valva, 40, was arrested along with his fiance Angela Pollina, 42, after police say Valva's 8-year-old autistic Thomas Valva froze to death in his father's garage in the Long Island neighborhood of Center Moriches on January 17. Valva was suspended from his NYPD job without pay, his lawyer John LoTurco said, but added the resignation means Valva's pension would remain untouched. LoTurco said he had just completed discovery on a number of ...

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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13072...urder-autistic-son-resigns-job-keeps-pension/

 

No Pension For Father Charged With Murder After Son Froze: NYPD

Michael Valva, the father charged with murder in the death of his son Thomas, 8, who froze to death in a frigid garage, will not be receiving a pension, the NYPD said. In a Tweet Wednesday, the NYPD wrote: "Former NYPD Officer Michael Valva, charged in the January death of his 8-year-old son in Suffolk County, resigned from the NYPD. He will NOT be receiving a pension." Valva resigned from the NYPD last month. NYPD spokesperson Sgt. Jessica McRorie told Patch that Valva resigned without the permission of the police commissioner, and the NYPD was not going to be "vesting ...

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...-with-murder-after-son-froze-nypd/ar-BB1aJBIH

 

No Pension For Father Charged With Murder After Son Froze: NYPD

Michael Valva, the father charged with murder in the death of his son Thomas, 8, who froze to death in a frigid garage, will not be receiving a pension, the NYPD said. In a Tweet Wednesday, the NYPD wrote: "Former NYPD Officer Michael Valva, charged in the January death of his 8-year-old son in Suffolk County, resigned from the NYPD. He will NOT be receiving a pension." Valva resigned from the NYPD last month. NYPD spokesperson Sgt. Jessica McRorie told Patch that Valva resigned without the permission of the police commissioner, and the NYPD was not going to be "vesting ...

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https://news.yahoo.com/no-pension-father-charged-murder-005445694.html

 

911 tapes: NYPD dad charged with murder tried to revive 8-year-old son who froze in garage

Michael Valva told Suffolk County 911 “I’m a police officer with the City of New York,” as he frantically performed CPR on his dying 8-year-old son, Thomas, on Jan. 17, 2020. But Suffolk County prosecutors say Valva and his live-in fiancee’ Angela Pollina were lying about the circumstances of Thomas’ distress. They were charged with murder after the medical examiner found Thomas died of hypothermia; the boy was forced to sleep in a freezing garage on a 19 degree night. The 911 call was played at a Tuesday pre-trial hearing, where a judge will decide on defense motions to keep ...

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https://pix11.com/news/local-news/l...to-revive-8-year-old-son-who-froze-in-garage/

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911 tapes: Dad charged with murder; tried to revive 8-year-old son who froze in garage

Michael Valva told the 911 operator: “I’m a police officer with the City of New York,” as he frantically performed CPR on his dying 8-year-old son, Thomas, on Jan. 17, 2020. But Suffolk County prosecutors say Valva and his live-in fiancee, Angela Pollina, were lying about the circumstances of Thomas’ distress. They were charged with murder after the medical examiner found Thomas died of hypothermia; the boy was forced to sleep in a freezing garage on a 19-degree-Fahrenheit night. The 911 call was played at a Tuesday pre-trial hearing, where a judge will decide on defense motions to keep certain ...

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https://www.cbs17.com/news/national...to-revive-8-year-old-son-who-froze-in-garage/

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