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LI prosecutors: Killer dad and fiancee coldly discussed his dying autistic son’s condition, never called for help after boy fell on frigid garage floor

The New York Daily News - 1/26/2020

A callous NYPD cop and his fiancee crudely discussed his abused autistic son’s imminent death inside a bitterly cold Long Island garage without one word about calling for help, authorities said.

The expletive-laced chat between Transit Police Officer Michael Valva, 40, and Angela Pollina, 42, included a recorded admission that the cop was suffocating helpless 8-year-old Thomas Valva after the child repeatedly fell head-first onto a frigid concrete floor inside the two-story house of horrors in Center Moriches, authorities alleged.

The tiny victim’s body temperature plunged to 76 degrees before his Jan. 17 death in the home on Bittersweet Lane, where Thomas and his 10-year-old autistic brother Anthony were forced to use the sub-freezing garage as their bedroom, officials said.

A recording recovered from the home by investigators captured the two accused murderers cold-heartedly discussing Thomas after another child is heard asking why the boy couldn’t walk.

“Because he’s hypothermic,” replies Pollina.

“He keeps face-planting on the concrete,” says Valva.

“You know why he’s falling,” says Pollina.

“Because he’s cold,” responds Valva. “Boo f---ing hoo.”

Pollina then asked the cop what he was doing to Thomas, with Valva responding, “I’m f---ing suffocating him, that’s what I’m doing.”

While defense attorney Matthew Tuohy said the couple denied any part in the boy’s death, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini promised to hit the accused killers as hard as legally possible.

“The depravity of these defendants is shocking," said a shaken Sini after hearing the recorded conversation. “They caused the death of this little boy, then watched him die."

Devastated mom Justyna Zubko-Valva divorced the city cop in 2016. The distraught mom told the Daily News a judge gave Valva full custody of her three sons because Valva falsely accused her of abuse. She has been fighting for years to regain their custody.

Zubko-Valva -- a correction officer at Rikers Island -- said she repeatedly complained to law enforcement about how Valva and Pollina treated her sons, and that she even went to the FBI.

“I sent packets and packets. I went everywhere to help my children, who needed so desperately for somebody to just do their job and protect them,” she said.

“I felt I was always receiving letters back that they don’t take care of that, or they can’t help me, or I should be addressing this with local authorities,” Zubko-Valva said.

“There was so much corruption.”

Zubko-Valva tweeted Saturday for the first time since her son was killed.

“I am still extremely heartbroken, and devastated over the cruel and tragic death of my little angel Thomas that could have been preventable," she wrote on the Twitter page where she detailed abuse allegations against her ex-husband. "Please continue keeping us in your prayers.”

Suffolk County officials could not be reached Saturday to address the issues Zubko-Valva raised.

Pollina’s ex-husband told The News that he didn’t want to discuss his former spouse, whose three daughters -- 11-year-old twins and a 6-year-old girl -- lived in the suburban home with her and Valva.

“I’m just trying to make sure my girls are OK,” Michael Ickhan told The News. ""I’m very sympathetic to (the slain boy’s mother) Justyna."

Prosecutors said home video surveillance showed Thomas and his 10-year-old brother Anthony shivering inside the bitterly cold garage two nights before the younger boy’s death, when the temperature dropped to a bone-chilling 19 degrees.

A camera positioned to show the garage floor was labeled “kids room," leading investigators to believe the frigid room served as the boys’ sleeping quarters, prosecutors said.

Valva and Pollina were held without bail at their Friday night arraignment, with a Suffolk County judge determining the pair posed a flight risk. They are due back in court this Wednesday.

Thomas was thrown into the garage for the last night of his life after taking a beating from his father for an unknown transgression, according to sources. When police arrived on Jan. 17, Valva was performing CPR on his lifeless son’s body and claiming the boy fell in the driveway while waiting for the school bus, sources told The News.

The dad allegedly put the dead boy’s icy remains in a tub of hot water in an effort to dupe first responders into buying his bogus story, the sources added.

But Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said Thomas was never in the driveway that morning and his injuries were inconsistent with the story told by the father.

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(c)2020 New York Daily News

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