US: A dozen calls to a child abuse hotline couldn't save 8-year-old

It was no secret that Tommy Valva was suffering.

Over the past 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 one child to sleep in the garage. That child, the caller said, "arrived at school with his clothing soaked in urine," shaking from the cold.

The boys' mother also issued warnings, posting videos online from the children, who lived with their father and his fiancEe in Center Moriches, Long Island.

"Daddy says to me that I can't listen to you and I can't hug you and I can't say, 'I love you, Mommy' and 'I miss you, Mommy,'" Andrew Valva said in a clip posted Jan. 7, 2018.

"Why?" his mother asks.

"Daddy's going to put me outside," he replies.

The efforts to keep the boys safe went unheeded. On Jan. 17, Tommy, 8, died after being forced to sleep in his father's garage in subfreezing weather, authorities said. The father, Michael Valva, 40, a New York City police officer, and his fiancEe, Angela Pollina, 42, were arrested a week later and charged with the child's murder.

At his death, Tommy's body temperature was just 76 degrees.

Alarm bells

The case, with its documented piles of reports, phone calls and court filings - in which teachers, nurses, school psychologists, advocates and the Valva boys' mother tried unsuccessfully to raise the alarm about the children's treatment by their father, a veteran transit cop - has turned a harsh light on Suffolk County's child protection agency.

In some instances, investigators declared the claims unfounded, documents show; in the few instances when they were corroborated, the children were still left in their father's home. Last week, Suffolk County began a sweeping investigation into its department of social services in connection with the case.

Monica Mahaffey, a spokeswoman for the New York state Office of Children and Family Services, said she couldn't comment on details of the case. But she said, "Our agency will review Suffolk County's casework and will issue any recommendations for improvement or corrective actions based upon our findings. We will also review the county's investigation into the handling of this case."

The records of calls to the abuse hotline were previously reported by The Daily News.

Justyna Zubko-Valva, the boys' mother, is a correction officer at Rikers Island. A few days after she buried her third-grader in a white tuxedo, she spoke from her home in Valley Stream, New York, rifling through the piles of papers documenting her years of pleas for help. "I can stand in front of God and say I honestly tried everything," she said tearfully. "Tommy is not alive anymore, and there are so many people who are responsible for his death."

In the tidy brick housing complex, residents said they often awoke to the flashing lights of a police car responding to a dispute at No. 25, where the couple lived before splitting up in 2015. They had been married since 2004. "No one was helping her," said Shagufta Naz, who lives across the courtyard. "He was in the police, so everybody was scared to help her."

Between them, Valva and Zubko-Valva made more than 20 calls to 911 from 2015 to 2019, according to information provided by the Nassau County Police Department. In one call, Zubko-Valva alleged that her children were being sexually abused. The allegation was investigated and determined to be unsubstantiated, said Detective Lt. Richard LeBrun, a spokesman for the department.

'Unfounded claims'

In a call on Dec. 30, 2015, Zubko-Valva told police that her children had not eaten that day in her husband's care.

LeBrun wrote in an email, "When police arrived they observed the father and children arriving home."

"Father Had McDonalds bag filled with food in his hands," the email said. Officers determined the claims were unfounded.

In 2018, Valva was placed under court-ordered home supervision for a year, according to a statement from Frances Pierre, commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Social Services. The court also ordered "the parents to refrain from harmful behaviors toward the children."

Lawyers for Valva and Pollina could not be reached for comment. Shana Curti, who represented Valva in his divorce case, did not respond to requests for comment. Pollina's three daughters also lived with the couple. Michael Ichkhan, their father, declined to comment. "I am in a very lost situation right now," he said the day of her arrest.

Trial for neglect

Zubko-Valva has also faced accusations of neglect. In September 2017, a judge initially awarded full custody of the children to her husband in their divorce. (She eventually obtained visitation rights.) Zubko-Valva said her husband told judges in divorce proceedings that she was mentally ill. That same year, she reported contusions on Tommy's buttocks to child services and ended up on trial herself for neglect in Suffolk County Family Court. The charges were dismissed.

As part of discovery in her neglect case, Zubko-Valva unearthed more of her children's teachers' concerns.

The boys frequently came to school crying from hunger, and one son, Anthony, had lost 11 pounds in just nine months, Nicole Papa, a special-education teacher at East Moriches Elementary School, wrote in a 2018 document that Zubko-Valva filed in court. The children had been spanked and instructed by their father and his fiancEe not to go to the school nurse, after a prior visit had resulted in a complaint to protective services, Renee Emin, the school psychologist, wrote in another document that Zubko-Valva filed.

In court proceedings, in which she frequently represented herself, Zubko-Valva claimed a vast conspiracy between child protection agencies and law enforcement to protect Valva. A prosecutor in her neglect trial described her as mentally ill, according to court papers obtained by The New York Post.

Three days after his arrest, Valva appeared in handcuffs in Suffolk County Family Court for a custody hearing, as did his wife. She was awarded temporary custody of their two surviving sons, Anthony, 10, and Andrew, 6.