Boston murder trial highlights LGBT domestic violence

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.