A judge ruled that the mom of the 8-year-old Long Island boy who froze to death in a room above his NYPD dad’s garage will get nearly $6 million — ending a lengthy and bizarre legal saga.
Justyna Zubko-Valva, the mother of tragic kid Thomas Valva, will take home $5.6 million of a $9 million settlement over her son’s death with Suffolk County in a newly finalized settlement, court docs show.
Zubko-Valva had almost blown up the deal in December of last year when she refused to sign off because she wasn’t taking home a big enough cut.
“The global settlement in the total amount — is approved as fair and reasonable under the circumstances of the case,” Judge Brian M. Cogan wrote in court docs.
In the original settlement, which was negotiated by Zubko-Valva’s attorneys on her behalf in September, the mother was only going to be netting $2 million, while her two surviving sons would be getting trusts with $4 million each. Her lawyers would have net $3 million.
The grieving mom claimed to the judge at the time that she needed two-thirds of that $9 million in order to use the extra money to properly provide for her children, including supplying them with an education.
But this week she was finally granted more than double the amount she was originally entitled to, while cutting the split between Tommy’s surviving brothers — Anthony, 17, and Andrew, 13 — from $4 million each to just over $177,000 a piece, according to the the new settlement.
Her attorneys, meanwhile, will still take home the remaining $3 million they were originally entitled to, according to the settlement.
Thomas Valva’s senseless death in January 2020 rattled the quiet Suffolk County community.
Valva froze to death after his cop dad Michael Valva and his then-fiancée Angela Pollina repeatedly abused the autistic child and forced him to sleep in sub-zero temperatures with no blanket in an unheated garage.
The boy’s mother had originally sued Suffolk County for $200 million in 2022 for failing to protect Tommy despite repeated complaints of abuse and neglect that his teachers reported to the county’s Child Protective Services.
Her suit also included accusations that the judge who gave her former husband temporary shared custody of Tommy and their two other boys erred in taking the kids from her. She lost full custody for refusing to undergo a psych evaluation as part of their court battle.
Both adults were later convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
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