PAY FOR TOMMY
Mom sues for $200M in L.I. abuse killing
The mother of an autistic 8-year-old boy allegedly left to die by his father in a frozen Long Island garage filed a $200 million lawsuit Tuesday, alleging the system designed to protect her son was actually complicit in his cruel death.
The lawsuit filed by Justyna Zubko-Valva names her estranged husband, suspended NYPD Officer Michael Valva, and his girlfriend Angela Pollina, along with workers at Suffolk County Child Protective Services, the local school district, attorneys assigned to represent her doomed son Tommy and an attorney with the county Department of Social Services.
“Tommy’s death was not only foreseeable, but completely preventable,” the 99page Brooklyn Federal Court filing charged. “For over three years leading up to his death, Plaintiff … repeatedly warned Defendants that her three young children, including Tommy and his two siblings, Anthony and
Andrew, were being tortured, beaten, physically, mentally and sexually abused and starved by Valva and Pollina.”
The Daily News, in a series of articles, detailed ZubkoValva’s persistent but constantly rejected efforts over three years to regain custody from her abusive husband. Investigations into her complaints were quickly closed, and her attempts to regain custody of the three children were rebuffed.
The mother provided authorities with “overwhelming and irrefutable evidence of abuse, including documentary evidence, audio recordings and transcriptions, photographic evidence, and medical evidence,” the court papers continued.
But her arguments fell on deaf ears until the little boy’s Jan. 17 death, when authorities alleged that Valva beat the helpless Tommy before forcing him to sleep inside their unheated garage as temperatures dipped into the teens.
Upon discovering his son’s lifeless body, Valva washed Tommy’s corpse in an attempt to warm the remains and lied to police by claiming the child was injured by a fall in the driveway of their Center Moriches, L.I., home, authorities charged. Valva and his girlfriend are facing charges of murder.
“Tommy was a small, defenseless boy with a great smile,” said the mother’s attorney, Jon Norinsberg. “My client repeatedly showed and warned anyone who would listen that her children were being starved, abused and tortured.
“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 … Little Tommy would be alive if these defendants had done their jobs properly.”
Messages left for Suffolk County Child Protective Services and the East Moriches Union Free School District, named as defendants, were not immediately returned Tuesday.