by Peter Cassels
EDGE Contributor
Tuesday Feb 2, 2010
Sophia and Acia Johnson died in a South Boston fire on April 6, 2008, their mother’s girlfriend allegedly started.
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A murder trial now under way inside a Boston courtroom promises to shed light on a little known problem within the LGBT community: domestic violence.
Nicole Chuminski allegedly set a fire to a South Boston three-decker early on April 6, 2008, that killed her girlfriend’s two young children after they had an argument. The Suffolk County district attorney charged Chuminski with two counts of murder and one count of arson in the deaths of 14-year-old Acia Johnson and 2-year-old Sophia Johnson, the children of Chuminski’s former girlfriend, Anna Reisopoulos.
Boston prosecutors also charged Chuminski with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon--smoke and flames--for injuries Reisopoulos and her son sustained during the blaze.
Activists are concerned mainstream media coverage of the trial will focus on a spat between lesbian lovers and not on the larger issue of domestic violence, which they say affects LGBTs at the same rate as heterosexuals.
The children died holding each other in a closet in their third floor apartment. The conflagration burned them so badly the medical examiner needed dental records to make positive identification.
An investigation revealed Reisopoulos and Chuminski had argued at a wedding hours before the fire. Police arrested Chuminski after they discovered an accelerant on her clothing consistent with fuel that investigators found on a door frame in the dwelling.
The Network/La Red, a Boston-based organization working to end same-sex partner abuse, said although largely invisible, domestic violence occurs in 25 to 33 percent of relationships, a rate very similar to that heterosexual women experience.
"The mainstream media is not treating this situation as they would if it involved a heterosexual couple," Beth Leventhal, the organization’s executive director, said in a Feb. 1 statement. "We are seeing this play out in two ways. First, the media continue to sensationalize the relationship between Chuminski and the children’s mother Anna Reisopolous, calling them ’lovers.’ Second, domestic violence has rarely been mentioned. Instead, media routinely refer to their interactions as quarrels and lover’s spats. This kind of media coverage only perpetuates the minimizing and invisibility of both LGBT relationships as well as partner abuse within our communities."
In his opening statement yesterday, Assistant District Attorney David Fredette told the jury Acia Johnson took her younger sister back to their home after they played in a nearby park with their brother and a friend; she carried her up to their bedroom.
"What Acia didn’t realize, was that with every step she took, she was sealing her fate and Sophia’s fate," Fredette said.
The prosecutor said Reisopoulos had humiliated Chuminski at a wedding reception earlier in the day. As the children slept early on April 6, Fredette said Chuminski arrived at the apartment and began to bang on the door. He charged Chuminski "willfully and maliciously" set the fire after nobody answered.
"The conditions were perfect for that fire to spread, trapping Acia and Sophia on the third floor," Fredette said.
Acia Johnson "picked up the baby and brought her to the closet," he added. "She cradled that baby. And that’s the way the fire department found them."
Investigators from both the Boston Fire Department and Boston Police Department determined that arson caused the fire. The Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory found acetone, a chemical found in various solvents, in evidence collected at the fire scene and on clothing Chuminski was wearing that night.
"You will have all the tools you need at the end of this trial to find the defendant guilty," Fredette said. "Nicole Chuminski went to that house that morning and intentionally set that fire."
In his opening statement, defense attorney William White asked jurors to deliberate based on evidence and witness testimony.
"One of the things you’re not allowed to do is let sympathy [for the victims] in your mind," he said. "Nicole Chuminski did not start the fire."
Boston District Fire Chief Ronald Marston and 10 other witnesses described how the fire deterred rescue efforts.
If found guilty on at least one of the murder charges, Chuminski faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
As trial begins, fatal fire haunts
S. Boston mourns sisters, 3 and 14; Defendant fought with girls’ mother
By Milton Valencia, Globe Staff | February 1, 2010
They were warned they would have to endure what a judge called “evidence of a graphic and disturbing nature.’’
A pool of more than 100 prospective jurors faced a trial that promised to be emotionally grueling - a South Boston woman was charged with setting a raging fire two years ago that killed a popular 14-year-old and the 3-year-old sister she doted on.
One woman told the judge she already thought the woman was guilty. “I’ve seen it on TV,’’ she said. An elderly man said he couldn’t remain impartial knowing that two children were dead. Another said he heard the fire was started because of a fight.
One after another, it seemed, they had all heard stories about the tragedy in the South Boston row house on the morning of April 6, 2008.
But a jury of 16 finally was selected, and the trial begins today in Suffolk Superior Court with opening statements expected to describe in detail the deadly blaze that roiled a neighborhood.
Nicole Chuminski is charged with murder and arson in the fire that killed Acia Johnson and her younger sister, Sophia, in what prosecutors have called a horrific case of domestic violence.
The high-profile trial, expected to last about two weeks, is expected to be dramatic, with testimony from the girls’ mother and police and fire investigators, and a visit to the fire scene.
And in the backdrop remains the community scarred by the deaths of the two girls.
At the Gavin Middle School, where Acia was an eighth-grader, a basketball standout who seemed to be friends with everyone, a yearly award has been established in her name, recognizing her selflessness in caring for her sister and her drive to rise above a lifetime of struggles.
“You’d be hard pressed to find a kid who didn’t know her name,’’ said Alexander Matthews, the school principal, who says he still shudders when he drives past Acia’s neighborhood on his way to the school.
She was the hard-working student who listed baby-sitting as her favorite hobby.
“There’s still a lot of sadness. But there’s a lot of positive in her that we remember and see today,’’ he said. “It’s not forgotten, and people still have a whole range of emotions of who she was, and what she meant to us.’’
The nightmare of that April night lives on at West 6th Street, where the Johnson family once lived, even though a new house, painted deep green with a holiday wreath on its front door, has been constructed at the site.
“It’s sad we had to witness it happen,’’ said Mary Matthews, 26, who lives across the street. “It was like something I hope never to see again for the rest of my life.’’
The fire started about 3:15 a.m., roaring its way through the three-story house up to the back of the top floor, where Acia and Sophia slept. They were trapped by the smoke and flames.
The girls’ mother, Anna Reisopoulos, and their brother Ray Jr., Acia’s twin, made it out and watched from the dark street. Acia could not fight her way down the stairs, and she wouldn’t drop her sister out of the window. The girls crawled into a closet, together, and died there.
Arson investigators quickly zeroed in on Chuminski, now 27, who lived in the neighborhood and had started a romantic relationship with Reisopoulos. But the two shared an addiction to drugs and their relationship was often violent, court records showed.
Earlier the night of the fire, investigators say, they argued when Reisopolous was accused of stealing the purse of one of Chuminski’s relatives at a wedding they attended in Weymouth. Reisopolous came home alone.
Hours later Chuminski arrived, witnesses told police, and shouted at the front door in a drunken state. Ray Jr. heard a window breaking, but did not think much of it. Then Reisopolous heard the crackling of fire.
“Firebomb, firebomb. Call 911,’’ she screamed from the street, according to court records. “My babies, my daughters are in there.’’
Investigators later found an accelerant, acetone, on the front door and allege they found the same chemical on Chuminski’s clothes.
Chuminski’s lawyer, William M. White Jr., of Boston, said his client is innocent.
“From the very, very beginning, she said she didn’t do it,’’ he said. “She feels terrible with what happened. It’s very complicated, because she’s not responsible for the fire, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel bad for what happened.’’
The trial will cast a spotlight on a history of neglect, within the family and at the state government level.
Months after the fire, a child advocate appointed by the governor found in an investigation that the state Department of Children and Families had failed at the most fundamental levels to rescue Acia and Sophia from a life surrounded by drugs, violence, and emotional dysfunction. Acia’s parents had been in and out of jail She was supposed to be living with her grandmother, but instead became a caretaker for Sophia.
The advocate’s investigation followed a Globe report on the failures of social workers to rescue the children.
Angelo McClain, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, said in a phone interview Friday that the agency has acknowledged its failings and that sweeping changes have been instituted since the fire.
The agency created systems to better assess a family’s history and identify risk factors in a home, such as drugs and violence, he said. Social workers will ensure that children have been living with appointed guardians, and will hold guardians accountable to the courts.
Some of the measures had been in place before Acia and Sophia died, but had not been enforced, McClain said.
“They died as a result of arson, but if you take a step back, you can say they died of a really chaotic life and lifestyle that should not have happened,’’ McClain said. “They wouldn’t have been there the night of the fire, and we need to make sure we can address issues like that.’’
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