Mom Of Thomas Valva, Who Froze In Garage, Disputes Claims She Refused $9M Settlement: 'Absolutely Not True'

CENTER MORICHES, NY — Justyna Zubko-Valva, whose son Thomas, 8, froze to death in a Center Moriches garage at the home of his father, former NYPD Officer Michael Valva in 2020, is speaking out after reports that she refused to accept a $9 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit against Suffolk County officials and school representatives.

According to Newsday, during a telephone conference with Judge Edward Korman, Zubko-Valva refused to sign the settlement, which had been given the green light in September, because the documents provided by her attorney did not address the "pain and suffering" of both her surviving sons and herself.

"I have never refused to finalize our settlement in my federal court matter," Justyna Zubko-Valva told Patch in an interview. "I was the only person who acted in good faith during our mediation process in order to ensure that our settlement of $9 million dollars can be finally reached after months of negotiations."

She added that she believes "defendants and my attorneys kept purposely prolonging our mediation process in time. I was extremely happy to finally settle this almost six-year old case with defendants on September 24, 2025, and thought that the next step of finalizing our settlement agreement would be a straightforward and problem-free process."

At the heart of the issue why she did not sign the settlement, Zubko-Valva said, is a wrongful death compromise petition that she said was "full of untruthful statements," and was something that she could not sign.

Her attorneys, Zubko-Valva believes, presented her "as the person responsible for preventing our settlement agreement to be finalized. I was even falsely accused for not accepting $9 million settlement because the amount is allegedly too low for me. That's absolutely not true."

While Zubko-Valva's attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment, Newsday reported Adam Volk, one of those attorneys, saying that she had refused to contact her legal representatives; he also asked that they work together.

On social media, Zubko-Valva explained that the issue was not the amount of the settlement, but instead, the fact that her attorney "narrowed down our federal case to only a wrongful death lawsuit regarding my brutally murdered precious son Tommy, without taking into consideration other three victims — Tommy’s two surviving brothers and me, their mother."

Zubko-Valva said, too, that she has been working to resolve the case so that she might save her home from the foreclosure process, which she said was in the final stages.

In 2020, Manhattan attorney Jon Norinsberg of Norinsberg Law first announced that civil rights action was filed in the the Eastern District of New York on behalf of Zubko-Valva.

The then-$200 million suit was filed against several caseworkers, investigators and supervisors at Suffolk County Child Protective Services; the East Moriches Union Free School District and the child's principal and school superintendent; Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Hope Schwartz Zimmerman; attorneys Donna McCabe and Ethan Halpern, who were assigned to represent the Valva children; Randall Ratje, the county attorney for the Suffolk County Department of Social Services; and Michael Valva and his former fiancee Angela Pollina.

Then-Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini unsealed five-count indictments against Valva, 40, and Pollina, 42. Valva and Pollina, of Bittersweet Lane, were arrested Jan. 24, 2020; both were charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Both were convicted, and face 25 years to life in prison.

During trials for Valva and his former fiance, Angela Pollina, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Kerriann Kelly painted a grim depiction of the day Thomas died. According to police, he was left overnight in a frigid garage in his father's home, where Pollina also lived.

According to Kelly, Thomas, 8, and his brother Anthony, 10, endured unspeakable abuse; they were undernourished, begging for food, and foraging through the garbage at school because they were so hungry.

Teachers asked Pollina and Valva to send more food to school with the boys, but that did not happen, she said.

The boys were sent to school with their hands and cheeks red and cold to the touch, Kelly said. By their second year in the East Moriches School District, the boys were wearing diapers that were often soiled, she said. They were told not to see the nurse but did not, because they were "in fear" of Pollina and their father, she said. 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 and no extra clothes to keep them warm.

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

"Tommy’s death was not only foreseeable, but completely preventable," according to the complaint.

In 2020, John LoTurco, the court-appointed attorney for Michael Valva, said he did not represent Valva in defense of his civil case but he would be reviewing the claims and paperwork with his client.

"We do concur with his estranged wife that there was systemic failure by CPS in the lack of their ability to remove the children in a timely manner. After we've reviewed the evidence, we have come to the conclusion that the children should have been managed more properly by CPS as well as the school system," LoTurco said at the time.

According to Zubko-Valva's attorney, "the tragedy started on September 6, 2017, when Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Hope Schwartz Zimmerman unlawfully, and without due process, a hearing or supporting evidence against Ms. Zubko-Valva, gave custody of her three children, including Tommy, to Michael Valva, even though a prior judge in the case had barred Valva from overnight visits."

Zubko-Valva provided evidence to the court, Child Protective Services, the police and the children’s attorneys several times that showed the "severe abuse" of her children by Valva and Pollina, the complaint said.

Zubko-Valva repeatedly warned those named in the suit for three years that the boys were being "tortured, beaten, starved," as well as suffering abuse; the complaint said and she said she provided "overwhelming, irrefutable evidence of the graphic, horrific abuse, including documentary proof, audio recordings and transcriptions, photographs and medical reports."

Zubko-Valva also gave her children's own recorded statements regarding "the enormous physical and mental abuse that they were suffering at the hands of Valva and Pollina. Ms. Zubko-Valva specifically warned ... that her children were in 'enormous danger of losing their lives by Michael Valva and Angelina Pollina,'" the complaint said.

Rather than taking action to protect the children, as required under New York State Social Services Law, the defendants named in the suit "hid the truth about the children's health and fabricated false, misleading and dishonest reports about Ms. Zubko-Valva and her children," refused to remove the children from Valva and Pollina's home, and suppressed and destroyed evidence that gave Valva and Pollina "a green light to continue the severe abuse," the complaint says.

“This case is horrific and tragic," Norinsberg said. "Tommy was a small, defenseless boy with a great smile. My client repeatedly warned and showed anyone who would listen that her children were being starved, abused and tortured. Instead of helping the children, the defendants flagrantly violated their legal duties under New York State Law and exhibited a shocking indifference to the children’s health, safety and welfare. This was truly a conspiracy of silence. Valva was protected because he was a police officer. If he had been a normal citizen, he would have been arrested and put in jail. But because he was a police officer, the defendants looked the other way and let him get away with this horrific abuse. Little Tommy would still be alive if these defendants had done their jobs properly."

As lawmakers and the public demanded answers, then Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced the members of a new internal review committee that he said would be "performing a top to bottom review of the Thomas Valva case in the Department of Social Services."

Bellone also announced the establishment of an external task force to review all Child Protective Services policies and procedures as they relate to children with autism and other developmental disabilities. Deputy Presiding Officer Kara Hahn and Deputy County Executive Jon Kaiman were named as co-chairs of the task force.

In 2024, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney outlined changes that he said had been made to Child Protective Services since Thomas' death.

Zubko-Valva, according to Nurinsberg, is seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages to make sure that "the repeated, brutal violations of her children will never happen again to another family, and that the legal system will be changed to do more to protect innocent children from the abuse and torture" Tommy endured for years.

Zubko-Valva's goal is to see "Tommy’s Law" passed. It would improve how custody and mandatory child abuse reporting is handled and investigated, as well as create a foundation that would help protect other children like Tommy, her attorney said.