Michael Borcina

Matthew Badger Suing City Of Stamford For Christmas Fire That Killed His Daughters


Posted on May 05, 2012 @ 07:27PM - 12 comments

By Radar Staff

Matthew Badger, the father of three girls killed in a Christmas day fire that also took the lives of his mother and father-in-law, is suing the city of Samford, Conn. for failing to properly oversee construction of the house where they died.

Richard Emery, Badger's attorney, said a notice of intent to sue the city was filed yesterday, reports AP.

“They allowed a fire trap to exist under their supervision with children in it,” Emery said.

Matthew Badger, the father of three girls killed in a Christmas day fire that also took the lives of his mother and father-in-law, is suing the city of Samford, Conn. for failing to properly oversee construction of the house where they died.

Richard Emery, Badger's attorney, said a notice of intent to sue the city was filed yesterday, reports AP.

“They allowed a fire trap to exist under their supervision with children in it,” Emery said.

Read more
  • TAGS

Insurance Company Refuses To Pay Out For Madonna Badger Christmas Fire


Posted on Apr 26, 2012 @ 10:00AM - 27 comments

By Radar Staff

An insurance company is refusing to pay out for the tragic Christmas morning blaze that killed five family members of New York fashion executive Madonna Badger, and RadarOnline.com has the details for you.

Utica First Insurance claims in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that Badger's contractor boyfriend, policy holder Michael Borcina, repeatedly lied about details related to the house's construction and his business, Tiberias Construction Inc., over the past five years.

Read more
  • TAGS

Criminal Charges Being Weighed In Christmas Fire That Killed Five In Connecticut


Posted on Jan 21, 2012 @ 07:08PM - 92 comments

By Radar Staff

Criminal charges are possible in the devastating fire that killed five in Stamford, Conn. Christmas morning.  Veteran ad exec Madonna Badger's three children and her parents all died in the blaze. She and her boyfriend Michael Borcina who was handling renovations on Badger's newly purchased waterfront mansion, escaped with injuries.

Now The New York Post has learned that the Stamford police department is interviewing several workers on the renovation project, and criminal charges are being weighed.

“We’ve got a lot more interviews scheduled,” Police Capt. Richard Conklin told The Post. The home had no new certificate of occupancy, and its smoke-detector system, installed several months before the fire, was not hooked up, according to officials.

Badger, who created the iconic Mark Wahlberg Calvin Klein underwear ad, was in the process of divorcing her husband, the father of the three girls who died.

She and Borcina had been wrapping presents by the fireplace until about 3 am Christmas, and when they went to bed, Borcina put the Yule log embers in a bucket, which was left in a foyer.  It was those embers that started the killer fire.

Borcina’s contractor registration in Connecticut expired in 2000. His home-improvement license in New York expired in June 2010.  He's hired top criminal attorney Eugene Riccio to defend him in the event charges are filed,

The deaths have all been ruled accidental by the medical examiner, but a charge such as reckless manslaughter could be brought by the District Attorney, Connecticut attorney Stephen Seeger told The Post.

Read more
  • TAGS

Madonna Badger Questioned By Police About Christmas Fire That Killed Her Three Daughters


Posted on Jan 14, 2012 @ 07:11PM - 10 comments

By Radar Staff

Madonna Badger has been questioned extensively by police for the first time since losing her three daughters and her parents in a tragic Christmas fire.

The advertising executive was interviewed on Thursday night, Stamford police sergeant Paul Guzda confirmed although he would not reveal the nature of the conversations.

The inferno in Badger’s Connecticut home took the lives of her seven-year-old twins Grace and Sarah Badger, Lily Badger, 10, and her parents Lomer and Pauline Johnson.

As RadarOnline previous reported, Badger had to be physically restrained as she desperately tried to re-enter the house in the early hours of the fateful day in an effort to save her girls.

Her boyfriend Michael Borcina, who also survived the fire, had told officials that he put Yule log embers in a bag of discarded ash in an entryway which is thought to have been where the inferno started.

Assistant Fire Chief Peter Brown previously told RadarOnline that it is an ongoing investigation but that “the preliminary cause was accidental and that is the way it will be expected to stay.”

Borcina's constructin company was handling renovation work on Badger's recently purchased $1.7 million waterfront home.

Sgt. Guzda says police plan on interviewing Borcina soon too as officials want to find out if the large home had working smoke detectors.

The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection has said that Borcina nor his company had the right paperwork to conduct construction work in the state but did not say if they were going to launch an investigation.

Police have been patient in speaking to Badger while she had some time to grieve and also attend the memorial services for her five family members.

During her eulogy last week she cried in front of the 700-strong congregation, “Why my children? Why my parents?”

She was comforted by Borcina and the children’s father Matthew Badger at the service.

 

Read more
  • TAGS

‘Hysterical’ Madonna Badger Battled Firefighters To Get Back Into Burning House To Rescue 'Her Babies'


Posted on Jan 10, 2012 @ 06:00PM - 17 comments

By Debbie Emery - Radar Reporter

America was touched by the heartbreaking images of Madonna Badger sobbing as she said her final goodbyes to her family at the funerals of her three children and parents last week, and now RadarOnline.com has exclusive details of the devoted mom's fight to save them from the deadly fire that destroyed her Connecticut home.

"She was pretty hysterical and extremely emotional," Assistant Fire Chief Peter Brown of the Stamford Fire Department told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview. "She was trying to get back into the house, they had to physically stop her from going into the house and back up the ladder."

As RadarOnline previously reported, investigators believe the blaze started from yule log embers that Badger and her boyfriend Michael Borcina placed in the back foyer in a bag.

Read more
  • TAGS

Mourning Madonna Badger ‘Trying To Find Peace,’ Says Family Member


Posted on Jan 07, 2012 @ 04:00AM - 32 comments

By Debbie Emery - Radar Reporter

The memorial for Madonna Badger's three children and their grandparents is giving a small degree of closure to the mourning mother, RadarOnline.com has learned.

"It is a heartbreaking thing," a family member exclusively told RadarOnline.com, the day after the multiple funeral service.

"I hope that she has found some peace. Maybe this can help bring some closure.”

Read more
  • TAGS

Madonna Badger Gives Heartbreaking Eulogy At Funeral For Daughters Killed In Christmas Day Fire


Posted on Jan 06, 2012 @ 12:00AM - 34 comments

By Alexis Tereszcuk - Radar Senior Reporter

In a heartbreaking speech, New York fashion executive, Madonna Badger sobbed as she remembered her daughters who tragically were the victims of a Christmas Day fire in their home.

“My little girls are not gone from us entirely because my little girls are in my heart,” she said while sobbing. “Right here. And this is where they live.”

PHOTOS: Madonna Badger Sobs At Daughters' Funeral

Read more
  • TAGS

Hard-Wired Smoke Alarms Not Hooked Up In Madonna Badger’s Home


Posted on Dec 28, 2011 @ 01:30PM - 17 comments

By Neil Woulfe - Radar Senior News Director

Hard-wired smoke alarms had not been hooked up inside the Stamford, Connecticut Victorian home where the three young daughters and parents of New York advertising exec Madonna Badger died in a horrific fire on Christmas morning.

Authorities said Tuesday while there were plans for the alarms, they were not yet working; officials did not know whether battery-operated alarms were being used.

We’re also learning new details about the family’s frantic attempts to escape the burning $1.7 million, five-bedroom, waterfront home – purchased by Badger last year.

PHOTOS: Celebrities We Lost In 2011

Read more
  • TAGS

Madonna Badger's Three Kids & Parents Killed In Horrific Fire: Hear The 911 Call


Posted on Dec 27, 2011 @ 07:00PM - 2 comments

By Amber Goodhand - Radar Reporter

New York fashion executive Madonna Badger's three children and parents were killed in a Christmas day fire that tore through her Stamford, Conn. home and RadarOnline.com has the numerous 911 calls that were placed to authorities.

"There's a huge fire at the house next door to us. The whole house is on fire," the first caller says in the 911 tape first obtained by the New York Post on Tuesday afternoon.

"There's three kids and a woman…"

Read more
  • TAGS

Yule Log Embers Blamed For Fire That Killed Madonna Badger’s Three Kids And Her Parents


Posted on Dec 27, 2011 @ 01:00PM - 13 comments

By Radar Staff

A blaze that ripped through a family’s home on Christmas Day killing fashion executive Madonna Badger’s three young children and her parents appears to have been the result of Yule log embers.

The prominent New York businesswoman, who created the iconic Calvin Klein underwear ad with Mark Wahlberg, had been wrapping gifts by the fireplace with Michael Borcina until around 3 am. They apparently then loaded the embers from the fireplace into a bucket and left it in the foyer before going to bed, an emergency worker told The New York Daily News.

Investigators believe that is where the blaze started in the $1.7 million Victorian home that Madonna only moved into last year. Borcina was the contractor for the renovations being undertaken on the Stamford waterfront estate.

Lily Badger, 10, and her seven-year-old twin sisters Sarah and Grace were killed and their grandparents Lomer, 71, and Pauline also perished in the tragic incident.

Lomer had valiantly tried to rescue his grandchildren by climbing onto a flat section of roof atop the three-story home and was close to getting one of the trapped children out but collapsed from carbon monoxide poisoning.

He was found buried underneath rubble just outside an open window which was near to where his granddaughter’s body was located. The proud grandfather had dressed up as Santa Claus at Saks  Fifth Avenue this year to hand out gifts to children at the urging of his granddaughter Lily.

Neighbor and eye witness Charles Mangano told The Stamford Advocate he heard a man screaming for help as flames consumed the house shortly before dawn.

"They were both obviously in a state of shock," Mangano said.
"He was in his boxers and a T-shirt, with no shoes. They were leading him up to an EMS truck. The woman said -- she was mumbling -- and she said, `my whole life is in there'."

The distraught Badger was seen fighting to get back inside the home to try and save her girls but she was eventually subdued and loaded onto a stretcher.

Badger has been released from hospital while Borcina remains in stable condition.

Read more
  • TAGS

Sample Header

The Daily Juice