Mom of boy who froze to death after dad forced him to sleep in the garage agrees to settlement instead of a civil trial

The parent of a New York lad who died astatine the hands of his begetter and his fiancee has indicated that she would judge a colony implicit a civilian trial.

Justyna Zubko-Valva, the parent of 8-year-old Thomas "Tommy" Valva, who froze to decease successful January 2020 aft being forced to slumber successful his father's garage, appeared to beryllium consenting to settee her wrongful death assertion against Suffolk County for $9 million. Zubko-Valva primitively sued the region for $200 million, claiming that Suffolk County Child Protective Services (CPS) failed to support Tommy aft she made repeated claims of abuse. Online tribunal records stated that the civilian lawsuit was scheduled to spell to proceedings successful September.

The civilian suit was filed earlier Michael Valva, Tommy's father, and his then-fiancee Angela Pollina were some found guilty of second-degree murder successful transportation with Tommy's death. Both are serving sentences of 25 years to life.

As Law&Crime antecedently reported, Zubko-Valva's archetypal suit claimed that CPS and the schoolhouse that each 3 of her sons attended ignored her repeated claims of maltreatment by Valva and Pollina to the agency. Instead, CPS started investigating Zubko-Valva for maltreatment aft Valva claimed she was hitting the children and poisoning them with a toxic "brown medicine."

Newsday reported that each the claims made against Zubko-Valva were unsubstantiated. In a 75-page missive she wrote to then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr successful July 2019, she adjacent foreshadowed her son's death, penning that Valva and Pollina "commit the astir horrifying and inhuman signifier of kid abuse" against her sons and "lock[ed] them successful freezing acold store successful a wintertime time."

Tommy and his member Anthony, who some had autism, were punished connected the nighttime of Jan. 17, 2020, by Valva and Pollina, who hosed the boys down with h2o earlier forcing them to slumber successful the unheated store arsenic the outdoor somesthesia dropped beneath 20 degrees. Tommy froze to decease during the night.

U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman wrote successful a 2022 tribunal filing allowing Zubko-Valva's suit to determination forward, "Forcing Tommy and [his brother] Anthony to slumber successful subfreezing temperatures connected a cold, cement slab successful the store was truthful communal successful Mr. Valva and Ms. Pollina's household that they referred to the store arsenic the 'kid's room.'"

CPS aboriginal dismissed the claims against Zubko-Valva aft she presented grounds to the contrary, including transcripts of the begetter brainwashing the children to repetition phrases similar "I don't emotion mommy," "mommy is mean," and "I don't privation to enactment with mommy." Despite the deficiency of evidence, Korman wrote, CPS "repeatedly ignored a hopeless mother's plea for help, contempt having important grounds of Mr. Valva and Ms. Pollina's abuse, and past pursued a neglect petition against Mrs. Valva to screen up for, and distract from, their failures."

More from Law&Crime: Teachers Claimed Autistic Boy Was Abused for Over a Year Before Cop Dad Allegedly Killed Him: Report

According to the tribunal filing, the boys' teachers yet alerted CPS that the boys appeared to person "lost a noticeable magnitude of weight" portion successful their father's custody and looked "emaciated." Tommy's teacher told CPS that she saw him "eat crumbs disconnected the level and retired of the garbage" and came to schoolhouse successful a "wet pull-up." CPS closed its probe into the Valva boys connected Jan. 8, 2020, 10 days earlier Tommy died and Valva and Pollina were arrested.

Zubko-Valva reportedly disagreed with her attorneys and did not comply with the court's instructions erstwhile offered a $9 cardinal settlement. Now, it appears she has had a alteration of bosom arsenic she faces the foreclosure of her home.

Her existent lawyer wrote successful a tribunal filing that "the parties person travel to an statement connected a wide release, stipulation of discontinuance, and projected order" regarding that $9 cardinal colony amount. According to the filing, which was reviewed by Law&Crime, $7.42 cardinal volition travel from Suffolk County and $1.3 cardinal volition travel from Legal Aid of Suffolk County, with the remaining magnitude to beryllium paid by a section schoolhouse territory and country attorney.

U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan, who took the lawsuit implicit from Korman successful February, has yet to regularisation connected the motion. The national docket did not instantly bespeak an upcoming proceeding date.