[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.12.1″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.12.1″]<\/p>\n
Boston Globe by Gal Tziperman Lotan<\/em> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.12.1″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.12.1″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.12.1″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.12.1″]Boston police officers knew who they were looking for as they climbed the stairs to a third-floor apartment in Roxbury just after noon Sunday.<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, a woman had contacted police to help get her husband, Valdir B. Chaves, out of their home.<\/p>\n They did, but Chaves returned just a few hours later, fatally stabbing her in their bedroom in a blind rage, officials said.<\/p>\n The officers found Chaves on the second-floor landing, facing the wall with his hands behind his back, according to a police report.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to go to jail,\u201d he told officers, according to the report. \u201cI am ready to be arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n The woman, Dora Chaves, was 38, Chaves\u2019s lawyer said. She and Chaves were raising four children from previous relationships.<\/p>\n On Monday, Chaves, 43, was ordered held without bail to charges of murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.<\/p>\n At his arraignment in Roxbury Municipal Court, he wore a white Tyvek jumpsuit with the hood pulled over his head and cinched to hide his face. Chaves pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n Police took the clothes he was wearing Sunday as evidence, his lawyer, Earl Howard, said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is in a somewhat \u2014 I would say a confused state,\u201d Howard said. \u201cHe\u2019s not too sure of what\u2019s going on here.\u201d Chaves had been working as a delivery man, Howard said.<\/p>\n Chaves and his wife had an argument Saturday night, prompting her to leave the house, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum said in court. She returned with police early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n She was \u201cnot reporting any crime against her at that time, but asking that the police get him to leave the house, which he did,\u201d Polumbaum said.<\/p>\n When Chaves returned to the Clarence Street home, he and his wife went into the bedroom and argued behind a locked door. When Chaves emerged, he was covered in blood, Polumbaum said.<\/p>\n \u201cHis claim was the last thing he remembered was the victim yelling at him or arguing with him,\u201d Polumbaum said. \u201cNext thing he knew, she was in that state of being seriously wounded and he had no memory or no idea of how she got that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether police officers should have arrested Chaves initially depends heavily on the specifics of the case, which were not available Monday, said Maureen Flores, civilian domestic violence advocacy program manager for Quincy-based DOVE Inc., or Domestic Violence Ended.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a common call from the police, that the victim just wants things to calm down and just get their needs met in that way,\u201d Flores said. \u201cIf she said nothing about anything physical happening \u2014 if he didn\u2019t assault her or threaten to assault her when she called in the morning, the police are kind of limited.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Massachusetts law, officers are encouraged \u2014 but not required \u2014 to make an arrest when there is evidence of physical abuse or threats of violence, Flores said.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of victims say that \u2018I don\u2019t want them arrested, I don\u2019t want to move forward with charges.\u2019 But police still arrest,\u201d Flores said. \u201cWe have no idea where that person is going to be the next hour, the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n Toni K. Troop, a spokeswoman for Jane Doe Inc., said police officers and victim advocates use questionnaires to assess the risk of violence. Has the abuser threatened to kill you? Does he or she have access to firearms? Have you been strangled or forced to have sex? Has the violence escalated?<\/p>\n Those all require people being abused to participate, which they are sometimes reluctant to do, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why it\u2019s so challenging,\u201d Troop said. \u201cWe never blame the victim for any violence that might be perpetrated against them because we understand the real barriers that might be in place for them to speak out and seek services. The threat of violence can sometimes intimidate victims.\u201d<\/p>\n Chaves\u2019s mother, Maria Isabel de Brito, was staying with the family over the weekend, she said in a brief interview on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cHe used to be a good son,\u201d she said, speaking through a translator.<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s landlord, Augusto Pina, said they had lived in the apartment for several years, and Chaves never seemed to be a problem until about two or three months ago, when he began playing loud music and using \u201cbad words\u201d while sitting on the apartment building\u2019s steps.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s changed like day and night,\u201d Pina said.<\/p>\n Clarence Street is part of the Cape Verdean community\u2019s hub in Roxbury. Dulce Ferreira, director of domestic violence and sexual assault services for the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers, called on community members to speak more openly about the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that domestic violence remains a delicate subject in the Cabo Verdean community and others, and even though many are comfortable enough to reach out for support, many more do not act in fear of retaliation or of being negatively judged by the community,\u201d Ferreira said. \u201cThis tragic event highlights the enormous amount of work that is still needed to prevent domestic violence in our communities, and we encourage everyone facing domestic violence to seek help.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" JDI, DOVE and MAPS comment on a domestic violence homicide in the Cape Verdean community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-coverage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
August 13, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n