Suffolk County, Thomas Valva settlement still unfinalized after six years

A $9 million settlement in the Thomas Valva case remained unfinalized six years after the 8-year-old died in Center Moriches, because Justina Zubko-Valva had not signed the paperwork, and U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan warned the case could move to trial if she did not act within 30 days.

The delay keeps one of Suffolk County’s most searing child-death cases in the legal spotlight. Thomas died in January 2020 after being forced to sleep in a freezing garage at his father’s home in Center Moriches. Michael Valva and Angela Pollina were convicted separately in the case and are serving 25 years to life in prison.

The unresolved settlement also sits inside a larger record of government failure. In April 2024, a Suffolk County special grand jury found that Suffolk County Child Protective Services failed to protect Thomas and said his death could have been prevented. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said teachers had made 11 reports to CPS before Thomas died, and 10 of those reports were deemed unfounded.

Justina Zubko-Valva had already turned the case into a broader challenge to county accountability when she filed a $200 million federal lawsuit in June 2020. Her suit alleged systemic failures by county and school officials and said the death was foreseeable and preventable. The settlement now agreed to by Suffolk County would close only one part of that dispute, but the paperwork stalemate has left the case open.

The county has pointed to reforms announced in November 2024 for its child protective services unit, including lowering caseloads from 15 to 12, hiring more workers, raising pay from about $60,000 a year, and adding mental-health support for staff. Those changes were announced after the grand jury’s findings and after years of criticism that county systems missed repeated warnings around Thomas’s abuse.

For Suffolk County, the unfinished settlement is more than a court filing delay. It keeps pressure on the same institutions that failed to stop Thomas Valva’s death and raises a harder question about whether the promised reforms have changed how child welfare cases are handled in practice.