Pollina Trial: Valva's Ex To Testify At Murder Trial, 'Own Up': Lawyer

LONG ISLAND, NY — Opening statements marked the first day of the trial in Riverhead for Angela Pollina — former fiancée of Michael Valva, an ex-NYPD officer convicted of murder in the death of his 8-year-old son Thomas, who died of hypothermia after being forced to sleep in his father's frigid garage.

Valva, along with his then-fianceé Pollina, were arrested Jan. 24, 2020, and charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Each faced 25 years to life in prison, and both pleaded not guilty.

Jurors convicted Valva of second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child in Thomas' death. The boy froze to death in the Center Moriches garage. His father was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars.

Pollina appeared in court with a long braid and in glasses, with a black jacket and coughing. At one point, she turned around to look into the courtroom where her mother and sister, visibly upset, were present in support.

Assistant District Attorney James Scahill said that Pollina, who saw Thomas unable to walk and "face plant" at their home on Bittersweet Lane, told her daughter — who asked why Thomas couldn't walk — it was because Thomas was hypothermic. Pollina knew Thomas was in "grave danger" but did nothing to help, he said.

Thomas defecated and urinated on himself "because he was in the beginning stages of death," Scahill added.

In addition, Scahill said, Nest videos were deleted from the garage, the kitchen, the living room — the only videos that remained came from the dog Bella's room. Bella, he said, slept warm and with blankets while just feet away in the garage Thomas Valva and his older brother were forced to sleep on the bare, frigid floor.

Pollina acted with "depravity" toward Thomas when she knew he was hypothermic and did nothing, he said. The day Thomas died, just hours later, members of the NYPD converged upon the Bittersweet Lane house. When they left, Pollina "marched" straight to Valva and said she changed the Nest passwords and deleted the videos.

"There might have been a house at 11 Bittersweet Lane for Anthony and Thomas," Scahill said. "But it was not a home."

He added: "Thomas' death did not occur in a vacuum. It was the result of years of mistreatment, neglect and abuse."

Scahill also spoke about the teachers who will testify; those teachers at Thomas' school, have sobbed on the stand during Valva's trial as they recounted seeing Thomas and his brother starving, cold, always cold, even in the warmer months, with bruises and scratches, and eating crumbs from the trash and floor. Teachers brought in sweaters and jackets for them to wear, but they had to be returned at the end of each day because they were "fearful" of Pollina, Scahill said. He also reminded that the boys were wearing soiled pullups reeking of urine, although they had been toilet trained before moving into the Bittersweet Lane residence.

Suffolk County Medical Examiner Michael Kaplan is also slated to speak about Thomas suffering from "daily stress," Scahill said, which resulted in alopecia, a chronic kidney infection, a "paper-thin, stunted thymus," and about the fact that Thomas died from hypothermia.

"Angela Pollina owed a duty of care," not just as a mother of her own three girls in the home and caregiver, "but as a human being," Scahill said.

"She knew the grave risk of injury" Thomas was facing and "did nothing," he said.

Last week, hundreds of prospective jurors were excused, saying they couldn't remain impartial. The jury chosen was comprised of a higher percentage of men.

According to Matthew Tuohy, Pollina's attorney, anytime a child dies, people are impacted deeply. "It's in our DNA," he said. "It's ingrained in us, to protect our kids. Ninety-nine percent of us would die for our kids."

However, Tuohy said he does not want emotions to overtake jurors. "The emotions are hot," he said. Tuohy, who said he is a "humble" attorney focused on transparency, said he hopes the jury can remain impartial and not be swayed by emotion.

"The prosecution wants to talk about things that happened in the past, in 2017, and what I talked about is focusing on the day. They want to put a tremendous emphasis on the background, and I want to stay in the day."

Pollina is "100 percent going to take the stand," Tuohy said. "She's going to own up to what she didn't do — commit the crime. It's clear Michael Valva did it."

It was Valva who washed Thomas with water from an icy spigot in 19-degree weather, Tuohy said.

Pollina wasn't the only person there; the housekeeper was also present, he said. And Pollina brought towels to help, he said.

"We're not going to whitewash anything," Tuohy said. "We're going to be transparent and talk about what happened that day. We want to stay 'in the play' and not get stuck in the mud. She's going to own up to what she did wrong; we can't make it right. Then she'll tell the truth about what she didn't do — act in concert with Valva." Of, Tuohy said, "She's innocent." Valva, he said, committed the act. "She's being brought into this because she lived in the house."

Tuohy said he expects the trial to conclude in three to four weeks.

During Valva's trial, one witness, a plumber, said he saw Pollina throw a child down the stairs. There was also evidence shown of texts reflecting Pollina's frustration with the incontinence of Thomas and his older brother and her stating that she did not want them in the house. Valva's defense team painted an image of Valva as a man stressed over finances, who had nowhere to go with his boys if he had to leave the home he shared with Pollina.

Thomas and his brother were forced to sleep in the frigid garage as temperatures outside plummeted to 19 degrees, prosecutors said. When he died, Thomas' body temperature was 76.1 degrees, 20 degrees lower than it should have been.

Also taking the stand Monday was the first witness called, Cassidy Lessard of the Suffolk County Police Department, who said she was called to the scene when Valva first reported that Thomas, 8, had died and, according to Valva, sustained a head injury. "He said his head hit the wall," she said, and that Thomas has urinated on himself because he was unconscious.

Thomas, she said, was lying on the floor when she arrived with no pulse; despite CPR attempts, he never regained consciousness or began breathing.

She described carrying him to upstairs to a stretcher on the front lawn. "He was light in weight," she said. "He was cold. His back and hair were wet, but his clothes were dry."

Lessard said she believed Thomas had already died before help arrived.

Thomas' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva pleaded for help on her Twitter page before her son died. In 2020, Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million wrongful death suit.

Zubko-Valva has not responded to requests for comment.

In June, a judge ruled that portions of the $200 million lawsuit filed by Zubko-Valva after Thomas died can move forward, a judge ruled.