An internal affairs investigation into the actions of Rutland, Vermont police in a motor-vehicle pursuit that resulted in the death of a young officer was “preventable” if police had followed proper procedures,
recent court documents show. A Salisbury man driving the vehicle being pursued faces a murder charge in her death.
The investigation found other officers involved in the July 2023 deadly incident committed several policy violations, from not having the proper authority to initiate the pursuit to not following procedures while the chase was underway.
The pursuit, according to police, ended on Woodstock Avenue in Rutland when Tate Rheaume slammed nearly head-on into a cruiser, killing 19-year-old Rutland City Police Officer Jessica Ebbighausen.
Ebbighausen had been with the Rutland City Police Department for less than two months as a part-time officer and was scheduled to begin training the following month to get her full-time certification.
“The death of Officer Ebbighausen WAS preventable,” Rutland City Police Commander Sam Delpha, who conducted the internal affairs investigation into the crash, wrote in his conclusion to his nine-page undated report.
“This incident and more specifically the pursuit should have never happened,” Delpha wrote. “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.”
The report was included as an exhibit to a filing last week in Rutland County Superior criminal court by Rheaume’s attorney, David Sleigh.
Had the officers performed “their jobs correctly on this day,” Delpha added, the crash would not have occurred.
“Even if the pursuit was legitimately started, supervisors had a duty and responsibility to stop the pursuit,” Delpha wrote. “There was plenty of time in between radio transmissions for supervisors to take control of this situation and make the appropriate decisions.”
Rheaume, who was also injured in the crash, was charged shortly after the incident with grossly negligent operation of a motor vehicle with a resulting death and attempting to elude police leading to a fatal crash.
He had been released on bail. However, several months later the prosecutor upgraded the charges against Rheaume to include aggravated murder — the most severe charge available in Vermont — which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison without parole if Rheaume is convicted.
Rheaume, 22, was arraigned on the upgraded charges in April 2024 and has been held without bail since then. A trial is not expected to take until sometime next year.
Sleigh, in his court filing, wrote that the Rutland County State’s Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting Rheaume, did not disclose the internal affairs report to him. Instead, Sleigh wrote he learned of its existence during depositions of Rutland City Police officers and other witnesses and he subpoenaed it directly from the Rutland City Police Department.
The defense attorney added that he has sought more information since the police department provided the report, including any drafts of it as well as any communications about it between Delpha and Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen.
Sleigh wrote that he was seeking an order from Judge Cortland Corsones to require the prosecution to provide him the information in order to find out whether the police department “has attempted to influence the prosecution, shape public sentiment, or disseminate prejudicial information to the community (including potential jurors).”
Sleigh withdrew that motion earlier this week, writing that the prosecution has since provided him with the additional information he was seeking.
The defense attorney said in an interview Wednesday he could not discuss any of the new information he received from the prosecutor since the discovery materials were not filed in court and made public.
Sleigh said the internal affairs report is an important development in the case against Rheaume.
“I think it’s critical both in assessing his guilt of aggravated murder and certainly mitigates, I think, any sentence that he might receive,” Sleigh said.
For example, according to Sleigh, an element of the aggravated murder charge was that Rheaume was eluding a lawful pursuit.
“I think the IA report calls into question whether the pursuit was lawful at all,” Sleigh said.
The defense attorney said his next steps include taking the depositions of Delpha, who is now retired, and Kilcullen. Sleigh added, “I don’t think it will be a surprise to see a motion to dismiss the aggravated murder.”
Kilcullen declined to comment to VTDigger about the report, including whether any actions were taken as a result of it or if he agreed with Delpha’s conclusions.
“I’m not going to have a comment on it while the criminal matter is pending,” Kilcullen said.
Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan said in an interview on Wednesday that he would not comment on any impact the internal affairs report would have on the prosecution of the criminal case.
“We look forward to litigating the case in court,” Sullivan said.
The internal affairs report outlined the steps taken by Delpha in conducting his investigation into the actions taken by officers leading up to and during the pursuit. A separate criminal investigation into Rheaume’s actions had been conducted by the Vermont State Police with assistance from the New York State Police.
The case against Rheaume alleges that police reported he was fleeing authorities who were looking for him after reports that he was inside the residence of a former partner in Rutland on the afternoon of July 7, 2023.
Rutland Police Officer Jared Dumas went to the residence and found Rheaume there, according to the affidavit, and Rheaume eventually fled the scene in his truck.
Dumas, who got into his cruiser, then went after Rheaume, spotting him on Woodstock Avenue and pursued him, heading west on the roadway, the affidavit stated.
Two other Rutland police cruisers were traveling east on Woodstock Avenue toward Rheaume at the same time, including one driven by Ebbighausen. She was with a training supervising officer, Richard Caravaggio, who was in the passenger seat. The other cruiser heading east on Woodstock Avenue was driven by Rutland City Police Officer Kelsey Parker.
Police alleged Rheaume crossed over the centerline on Woodstock Avenue into the eastbound lanes of the roadway, colliding at a high speed head-on with the cruiser Ebbighausen was driving before striking the second eastbound cruiser.
Investigators stated in court filings that Rheaume was driving at speeds between 76 and 82 mph at the point of impact.
Ebbighausen, who was thrown from the cruiser, died at the scene. Neither Ebbighausen nor Caravaggio were wearing seatbelts, court filings stated.
Delpha, in his internal affairs report, wrote that at the time Rheaume fled the residence Dumas did not have probable cause to arrest Rheaume. He also did not have probable cause to arrest Rheaume at the moment he arrived to find him at the residence.
“Dumas,” the police commander wrote, “did not have any evidence of a fresh break in, did not have any evidence Rheaume had stolen or damaged anything while inside, or violated any kind of court orders, and did not have any evidence that Rheaume was armed or made any threats.”
Up to the point of fleeing, Delpha added, Rheaume had been cooperative with Dumas. Even if there had been evidence of a burglary, Delpha wrote, a burglary is not a violent felony and would not have justified the pursuit.
“Our pursuit policy clearly states pursuits may only be undertaken for certain things to include a Violent Felony,” he added. “The pursuit policy further clearly defines a violent felony as “a serious felony that involves an actual or threatened attack that the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe could result or has resulted in death or serious bodily injury (e.g. aggravated assault, armed robbery, and murder, etc.)”. A burglary does not fit in any part of this definition.”
During the pursuit, Delpha wrote, Dumas’ body camera was on and captured audio and video, revealing that it was clear that Dumas was actively chasing Rheaume with his cruiser lights and sirens activated.
“In reviewing the audio transmissions recorded through dispatch, (dispatch recorded time stamps) it is also clear that Dumas never requests permission to pursue Rheaume which is a clear violation of our policy,” Delpha wrote.
At one point during the pursuit, the report stated, recorded audio transmissions revealed that Dumas was told by dispatch that city Police Commander Charles Whitehead was “inquiring” whether Dumas was trying to stop Rheaume. Dumas responded that was the case and that it was related to a burglary.
“It is at this point, based on the radio conversations alone, someone at any rank should have stopped this pursuit,” Delpha wrote.
“Dumas did not ask for permission to continue the pursuit, he was pursuing for a burglary only, and Dumas knew Rheaume was operating the vehicle he was pursuing and knew his recent mental health issues,” the report stated. “Therefore, continuing this pursuit was in violation of our policy.”
Delpha wrote that several ranking officers were on duty at that time, including Caravaggio, Sgt. Jon Dickerson and Whitehead.
“Any one of them could have made the determination to stop the pursuit,” Delpha wrote. “Instead, Caravaggio, Ebbighausen and Parker all left the station heading towards Dumas’ location to assist.”
Delpha wrote that he later contacted Dumas for an interview as part of the internal affairs investigation. The report said that by that time Dumas had resigned from the Rutland City Police Department and went to work for the Rutland Town Police Department, where his father is chief.
“Dumas at first accused this department of being retaliatory because he switched departments,” Delpha wrote of Dumas’ response to an interview request. Delpha wrote that when he provided Dumas a deadline of Dec. 18, 2024, to conduct the interview he never received a response.
Caravaggio, in his interview with Delpha, said that his memory around the time of the crash was “still fragmented.” He also said, according to the report, that he was familiar with the department’s pursuit policy. Caravaggio told Delpha that he did typically wear his seatbelt, but wasn’t sure why neither he or Ebbighausen were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.
“He speculates because of the hurried response they left from the station to go help Dumas,” Delpha wrote.
Also, Delpha wrote, “Caravaggio said it was his perception that Dumas was trying to locate or catch up to Rheaume and not in an actual pursuit until the last few seconds.”
The report also stated that the state police investigation found “a seatbelt defeat buckle” used on Caravaggio’s seatbelt assembly.
“This shows that he does not normally use his seatbelt in the police cruiser and he even made efforts to defeat the seatbelt warning system that is audible when the vehicle is in motion,” Delpha wrote.
Dickerson, who was also interviewed by Delpha, reported that he did not recall what Dumas had said in his radio transmissions.
“Dickerson said it all happened so fast,” Delpha wrote. “He said Dumas did not request authorization to continue the pursuit. Dickerson said he did not provide any guidance to Dumas or anyone on the radio during this incident.”
The report found that Dumas had committed several policy violations, from conducting a pursuit with no violent felony present to not seeking authorization to continue a pursuit.
Caravaggio, according to Delpha’s report, was found to have violated policies by failing to wear a seatbelt and failing to make sure his trainee was wearing a seatbelt. Also, Delpha wrote, he improperly used a “seatbelt defeat buckle” assembly and did not turn on his body camera during an emergency response.
Dickerson, Delpha wrote, violated policy by failing to advise Dumas that a pursuit for a burglary was not authorized and not assuming immediate control of the pursuit.
Dickerson told VTDigger that he was unaware of any policy violations found against him by the department related to the incident or that an internal affairs report had been completed. He declined further comment.
Rutland Town Police Chief Ed Dumas, reached Wednesday, said his son Jared Dumas had no comment regarding the internal affairs report.
Neither Delpha nor Caravaggio could be reached for comment. “The number one question remaining is this, if Officer Ebbighausen had her seatbelt on, would she have survived this crash,” Delpha wrote near the end of the report.
“At this point, we will never know,” he added. “Both Officer Dumas and Corporal Caravaggio’s actions, or lack thereof, were direct contributing factors in the cause of Officer Jessica Ebbighausen’s death.”
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This story was originally published by VTDigger and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
