From tragedy to triumph
From left, Carol and Kimberly Furmanek hold a photograph of Rhonda Furmanek, murdered in 1994. Carol and Kimberly, Rhonda's mother and daughter, keep her memory alive by speaking out about domestic violence. Kimberly recently became an attorney to help with the cause.
Kimberly Furmanek is sworn in to the practice of law as her grandparents, Carol and Dennis Furmanek Sr. stand next to her. Greene County District Attorney Marjorie Fox, who made the motion for her acceptance, is in the background.
Greene County President Judge William Nalitz swears in Kimberly Furmanek, who was admitted to the practice of law. To her left are her maternal grandparents, Carol and Dennis Furmanek Sr. Standing behind is Greene County District Attorney Marjorie Fox.
WAYNESBURG – Nineteen years ago, Kimberly Ann Furmanek was a brave 7-year-old testifying in a Greene County court about the murder of her mother, Rhonda Furmanek.
On Nov. 14, Kimberly stood in the same courtroom taking the oath to be admitted to the practice of law.
“From the time I could remember, there was nothing else I wanted to do,” Kimberly said, sitting at the table in her Waynesburg apartment with her maternal grandmother, Carol Furmanek. “In high school, I had it planned out. I was going to go to W&J for my bachelor’s degree and then to Duquesne University for law school.”
Carol and Dennis Furmanek raised Kimberly and her sister, Mia, then 2, after their daughter’s death.
The first part of Kimberly’s life plan worked. She graduated from Washington & Jefferson College. Then, Duquesne sent her a rejection letter.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, even after I was accepted to Widener University in Delaware (where she eventually got her law degree). The first week out there, I got very homesick,” she said. “I called home every day.”
Her aunt, Denise Musolino, Rhonda’s sister, said showed her niece some tough love and told her to stop calling and stick with it. Denise said there were other times in Kimberly’s life when she helped keep her on track, such as when she didn’t pass the bar exam on the first try, as many don’t.
“When she would get down on herself, I kept encouraging her,” Denise said following the November swearing-in. “I know that she’s going to be a good lawyer and help everyone who crosses her path. I think this is definitely her calling and this is what she should be doing. I can’t be more proud of her. She definitely used all her experiences to empower her to be where she is today.”
At the November swearing-in, a framed portrait of retired Senior Judge H. Terry Grimes hung on the wall nearby. Grimes served as judge in the trial for the men charged with her mother’s murder.
Attorney David Pollock, the district attorney in 1994 and the man who brought justice to the Furmanek family, was there. So was current District Attorney Marjorie Fox. An assistant district attorney at the of her mother’s death, Fox recommended Kimberly’s acceptance as a new lawyer. Other family and court staff filled the gallery of the courtroom in support of the little girl they watched come full circle.
“It was surreal. A lot of the same people were there today,” Kimberly said after being sworn in.
She has faint images of the trial that put her stepfather, William Edward Patterson, and his friend, John (JoJo) Fitzgerald Lavigne, away for life.
Kimberly recalls clutching a white teddy bear on the stand. Carol Furmanek said it was a baby doll from the office of Kimberly’s counselor.
“I remember being on the stand and Harry (Cancelmi, the public defender) stood right behind Ed (Patterson) and put his hands on his chair,” Kimberly said. “He started to ask me something and then said, ‘Maybe I should move.'”
The events that led to the stabbing death of Rhonda Furmanek began Oct. 23, 1994, with a brutal beating and rape by her estranged husband that sent him to jail for aggravated assault, spousal assault and burglary.
Kimberly remembered the night Patterson came to their home. She did not witness the assault but had a clear memory of what her mother looked like afterward. Photos showed the severity of the injuries, especially to Rhonda’s face.
“I remember he threw a trash bag out of the side trailer door and left. Mia and I shared a room, and my mom came in. She had blood all over her, and her bra was ripped,” she said.
After Rhonda dressed, she grabbed a baseball bat and circled outside her trailer to be sure Patterson left and then took her daughters to a neighboring residence. According to Kimberly, no one answered.
“We got to the second neighbor and the woman said, ‘Not now Rhonda, it is 2 a.m. My kids are asleep.’ But then she saw how badly my mom was beaten. She called for an ambulance,” Kimberly said. “My pap was out of town, so my grandma had us stay with her neighbor while she went to the hospital to be with my mom. I cried the whole night.”
Rhonda had already filed for divorce by then. “He was angry and had the attitude that if he can’t have her, then no one will,” Carol said.
This was despite Patterson being involved with another woman, Tammy Dutton Jones, who would be implicated in the murder.
While Patterson was in jail on the assault and rape charges, police determined he communicated with Jones and Lavigne from Greene County jail and arranged for them to kill Rhonda, who was to testify against him at his preliminary hearing. She never did. She was murdered Dec. 1, 1994, the day she was to appear in court.
The prior evening, Carol and Rhonda were shopping at a department store when they saw Jones and Lavigne. Both had a bad feeling, Carol said. As it turned out, police would learn the pair were in the store purchasing the masks they would wear that evening when they broke down the door of Rhonda’s trailer to silence her.
Kimberly said she heard her mother screaming, “Who are you, and what do you want?”
Rhonda had no chance of escaping the attack. She was right inside the door, sleeping on the couch. It was something she did since the rape and beating in her own bedroom weeks prior.
Jones and Lavigne pointed the finger at one another in interviews with police. During Patterson’s and Lavigne’s joint trial, Lavigne claimed Jones acted alone. Jones said Lavigne stabbed Rhonda first, then aided her in stabbing Rhonda two to three additional times. She said Lavigne then began to stomp on Rhonda’s head and cut her across her forehead.
A jury convicted Patterson and Lavigne of first-degree murder and sentenced both to life in prison. Patterson, now 48, is housed at SCI-Somerset, and Lavigne, 50, is at SCI-Huntingdon.
Jones, who served as a prosecution witness, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and received an 8-to-20-year sentence. She was released on parole in 2003.
Kimberly said she doesn’t hold any animosity toward the attorneys who defended her mother’s killers, noting they were just doing their jobs.
As for Pollock, she thinks he knows “how much I appreciate everything he did.”
“He’s one of those people who helped shape my life, as did Marge (Fox). I’m not specifically looking to be someone’s hero as an attorney, but they are my heroes and I hope one day I can be someone’s hero, too.”
After law school, Kimberly came back to Greene County to serve as a law clerk in Fox’s office. She is currently working in family law, hoping to land a job in the district attorney’s office down the road.
“What hit me hardest was being in the DA’s office and seeing my mom’s case files. They are in two boxes in the filing room,” she said. “Everything I ever wanted to see or know is in those boxes.” She chose, after much deliberation, not to look inside.
“I’m not a lawyer to become rich. I became a lawyer because I want to make a difference, if just in one person’s life, so my mother didn’t die in vain.”