Boyfriend changes story over Christmas fire that killed 5
HARTFORD, Conn. -- The contractor who took the blame for accidentally starting a 2011 Christmas Day house fire in Connecticut that killed his girlfriend's three children and her parents now says it was the children's mother who left a bag of fireplace ashes in a mudroom.
The Hartford Courant reports Michael Borcina told attorneys during a lawsuit deposition that he lied to police to protect Madonna Badger.
"To spare her from carrying the burden that maybe she had done something to hurt her family," Borcina said in the deposition.
Borcina had originally told authorities he put the ashes in the room. He later agreed to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the children's father, Matthew Badger.
Madonna Badger, an advertising executive in New York, and Borcina were dating at the time and escaped the fire that killed 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah Badger, 9-year-old Lily Badger and their maternal grandparents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson.
Authorities said the fire began after Borcina left the bag of fireplace ashes in a bin in the mudroom in the house. Borcina, who was renovating the $1.7 million Victorian home, was accused in the lawsuit of contributing with other defendants to make the house a "firetrap," including failing to install a smoke detection system during the construction.
A lawyer for Borcina didn't return a message Monday seeking comment. A phone listing for Borcina could not be found. Matthew Badger and Madonna Badger did not return messages seeking comment.
Madonna Badger has said Borcina ran his hands over the ashes to make sure they were out before putting the bag in the bin in the mudroom, just before they went to sleep after wrapping presents early on Christmas morning. She has since said she believes the blaze may have been electrical in origin.
Madonna Badger has alleged city officials intentionally destroyed evidence when they demolished the home without notice shortly after the fire. City officials have denied that.