Members of the Rutland City Police Commission will meet tonight in the Jessica Ebbighausen conference room at the city’s police department, named in honor of the young officer-in-training killed during a high speed chase in 2023.
It's fitting, said Commissioner Peg Flory, as she plans to demand more answers at the meeting about a scathing internal affairs report that finds Ebbighausen's death could have been prevented.
The 19-year-old officer-in-training was driving a police cruiser on July 7, 2023, when she was struck head on by Tate Rheaume. Rheaume had been fleeing another officer. He's since been charged with aggravated murder and his case is pending.
But an internal affairs investigation made public last week finds mistakes made by veteran Rutland City police officers played "direct" roles in Ebbighausen's death.
The undated report was made public as part of a filing Rheaume's attorney, David Sleigh, made in Rutland County Superior criminal court, according to VTDigger and Seven Days, which published stories about the investigation last week.
Those news reports are how Flory said she and fellow commission members learned about the investigation's findings, much to her dismay.
"We didn't get that internal affairs report and we should have," Flory said. “We should have been aware of the fact that there was this report, that's No. 1. No. 2, I want to know what actions, if any, have been taken since the chief got the report.”
Rutland Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said he notified members of the commission in March that the report existed, but didn’t provide details because of the ongoing legal case against Rheaume.
Read the internal affairs report.
The report was written by now-retired Rutland City Police Commander Sam Delpha. Delpha cites multiple lapses in protocol by veteran officers, some of whom were directly training Ebbighausen, who had only been on the job for several weeks when the crash occurred.
For instance, Jared Dumas, who instigated the high speed chase in his pursuit of Rheaume, had not taken the required police pursuit driving training program. Dumas had not requested or received authorization for a pursuit and Delpha states Dumas did not consider environmental factors such as speeding in a residential neighborhood or near a school. All these actions violated police policy.
According to Delpha, Corporal Richard Caravaggio, who was in the patrol car with officer Ebbighausen, failed to direct his trainee to wear a seat belt or ensure she had it on. He did not have his own seat belt on and had used a device to override the car's seat belt warning. Caravaggio also failed to activate his body camera and did not advise Dumas that his pursuit was unauthorized.
Delpha concludes: “The death of Officer Ebbighausen WAS preventable. This incident and more specifically the pursuit should have never happened. The pursuit should have never started. The specific parts of the vehicle pursuit policy were put in place to prevent this exact sort of thing. Had everyone done their jobs correctly on this day, this would never have happened … the actions and inactions of two veteran police officers were direct contributing factors in the cause of Officer Ebbighausen’s death.”
Since the crash, Officer Dumas has left the city’s force and Richard Caravaggio has been promoted.
Failing to wear a seat belt would not preclude an officer from a promotion, said Chief Kilcullen when asked about Caravaggio, who is now a Sergeant. Kilcullen would not comment more on the report because of the pending court case, but said equipment updates, like seat belt extenders, have been added to cruisers and said the department has undertaken extensive training to strengthen compliance with their existing policies. "This wasn't a policy failure. It's a compliance issue. When there are deficiencies, those are addressed ... with training," Kilcullen said.
Caravaggio's promotion seems questionable to Commissioner Peg Flory, she said. Asked if she still had confidence in the police chief, she admitted, "It's seriously waning."
