NYPD cop starved and forced his 8-year-old autistic son to sleep in a freezing garage where he died
LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK: A New York Police Officer and his fiancée were arrested for murder on Friday, January 24, over the death of the officer's eight-year-old autistic son.
The 40-year-old officer Michael Valva, and his 42-year-old fiancée Angela Pollina were charged with second-degree murder after leaving Valva's son, Thomas, in their garage at their Long Island home, according to a CNN report.
After finding the boy unresponsive, Valva called the police saying the kid had fallen in the driveway. The site reported that he was performing CPR on Thomas when the police arrived. He was taken to Long Island Community Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
Talking about the incident, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart, in a press conference, said: "We have determined that Thomas was never in the driveway that morning, and he suffered head and facial injuries that were not consistent with his father's account."
He added that the temperature that night was 19 degrees and Thomas's body temperature was 76 degrees. The medical examiner called his death a homicide and ruled hypothermia as a factor.
According to Detective Sophia Mason, Valva, a police officer in New York since 2005, has been suspended without pay. The two have pleaded guilty but are still in custody.
Matthew Tuohy, Pollina's attorney, told CNN that the 42-year-old had no role in the boy's death. He added that the case against her was extremely weak. "It is purely speculation and conjecture at this point," Tuohy said.
There was no comment coming from Austin Manghan, Valva's attorney. In the couple's custody were also Valva's other sons and Pollina's twin daughters.
Hart added that the police have looked at the audio and video recordings from the home's surveillance. It appeared that the couple was monitoring the activities of the six children and believed that Thomas and his elder brother were kept in the basement without food as punishment.
"We are still investigating the extent of the abuse, and if it extended to all the children," Hart said.
"I just really want justice for my son. He deserves it. This should never have happened," the boys' mother and Michael Valva's ex-wife, Justyna Valva, told NBC. "I just keep praying for this case to be fully resolved and my little angel Thomas to rest peacefully in heaven," she said.