An internal investigation into a 2023 police chase that killed a 19-year-old Rutland City Police trainee concluded that other officers made “egregious” mistakes that contributed to her death. The bombshell report was disclosed last week in a court filing by the defense attorney for Tate Rhea ume, who struck officer Jessica Ebbighausen with his pickup while fleeing from another officer. The state has charged Rheaume with aggravated murder, for which a conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.  Yet the internal affairs review, written by investigator Sam Delpha, a now-retired commander with the department, amounts to a clear and emphatic critique of the police response that day by asserting that other officers’ decisions were “direct contributing factors” in causing the fatal crash. The initial vehicle pursuit of Rheaume by officer Jared Dumas violated the department’s policy, endangering civilians on the heavily traveled Woodstock Avenue, Delpha’s report states. No other on-duty officers intervened to call off the dangerous pursuit, and neither Ebbighausen nor her supervising officer wore seatbelts when they rushed to assist.  “The death of Officer Ebbighausen WAS preventable,” Delpha concluded in the report. “This incident and more specifically the pursuit should have never happened.” The internal affairs report is undated. Such reports are typically not disclosed publicly. It came to light only through a subpoena earlier this fall from Rheaume’s defense attorney, David Sleigh, as part of his work in the criminal case and now is included in the public file. Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan, who upgraded the charges against Rheaume in 2024, told Seven Days by email that he received the report in October as a result of Sleigh’s subpoena.  Nonetheless, Sullivan said he is continuing to pursue the aggravated murder charge against Rheaume.  “Based on my review of those materials and all of the other evidence in the case, I look forward to presenting this case, including the aggravated murder charge, to a jury of Mr. Rheaume’s peers,” he wrote in an email. The report provides a detailed account of the chain of events on July 7, 2023. It describes several police interactions with Rheaume that day related to his presence at homes where his children and their mother were staying. During the second visit, a woman there told Dumas and another officer that Rheaume’s mental health was declining, he was “very psychotic” and wasn’t taking his medications. Rheaume, who was 20 years old at the time, drove away without incident, the report states.  A third call, around 2:30 p.m. reported that Rheaume had broken into an East Washington Street apartment. According to the report, Dumas ordered Rheaume out of the apartment and then called the mother of his children, who Rheaume claimed had given him permission to go inside.  During the call, captured on police bodycam footage, Dumas can be heard asking the woman how she wants the police to proceed, according to the report. Dumas then said aloud the words, “pursue charges,” at which point Rheaume ran away. Rheaume took off in his truck; Dumas pursued.  The internal review scrutinized Dumas’ decision to chase Rheaume and found faults at multiple levels. Dumas radioed that he was investigating a burglary, but at that point, he did not have evidence indicating that Rheaume had broken into the apartment, damaged or stolen any items, or violated any court orders, the report said.  The Rutland City Police Department vehicle pursuit policy authorizes chases for situations involving suspected violent felonies, the report states. “A burglary does not fit in any part of this definition. Officer Dumas would not have been authorized to pursue Rheaume for a burglary, even if Dumas had probable cause to arrest him for Burglary, which he did not have,” the report states.  Dumas, a six-year department veteran, activated his lights and sirens and pursued Rheaume through a busy parking lot, a school zone and two “heavily travelled” roads.  The report also faults other on-duty officers for failing to call off Dumas’ chase. “Based on the radio conversations alone, someone at any rank should have stopped this pursuit,” the report states.  Instead, police in two other cars scrambled to assist, including Ebbighausen, a trainee who had been working for several weeks. Ebbighausen drove a cruiser to Woodstock Avenue from the opposite direction of travel as Dumas and Rheaume. Her supervisor, corporal Richard Caravaggio, was in the passenger seat. Neither wore a seatbelt. Rheaume, still fleeing Dumas, crossed the center line and hit Ebbighausen and Caravaggio’s cruiser nearly head-on. Ebbighausen was thrown from the car and was killed; Caravaggio sustained serious injuries but later recovered and returned to work.  State prosecutors concluded that Rheaume’s decision to swerve into oncoming traffic while fleeing police at a speed of more than 80 miles per hour created a “substantial risk of injury or death” to those around him, justifying the elevated murder charge.  The internal report found no records that Dumas had completed a training program that is required under department policy before officers can participate in vehicle chases.  The investigator did not get to speak with Dumas directly, however. “By the time I was directed to continue my investigation,” Delpha wrote, the officer had resigned from the department and went to work for the Rutland Town Police Department, where his father, Ed, is chief. Delpha wrote that he contacted the former officer by email; Dumas “accused this department of being retaliatory” and did not respond to a follow-up request, Delpha wrote.  Caravaggio told the internal investigator that he usually wore his seatbelt but speculated that he and Ebbighausen had not buckled up that afternoon because of the “hurried response,” the report states. He also said he didn’t realize that Dumas was in a full-fledged pursuit.  Caravaggio did not activate his body camera during the pursuit, the report states; Ebbighausen’s was believed to have been destroyed in the crash.  Delpha tallied 16 policy violations in total between four officers involved in the events of that day, including eight by Dumas, and five by Caravaggio.  “Had everyone done their jobs correctly on this day, this would never have happened,” Delpha wrote.  Caravaggio declined to comment, citing the pending criminal case against Rheaume. Dumas could not immediately be reached. Jack Parlon, a labor representative for the Fraternal Order of Police, Boston, who accompanied Caravaggio to his interview with Delpha, said he was not aware that the internal investigation had concluded. Specifically, the department had not informed him of any decisions regarding officer discipline, Parlon said. He declined comment except to say the report is not the “end of the story.” “I think there’s more blame to go around,” Parlon said. “That’s only my opinion. To put all the emphasis and all the responsibility on the officers, in my view, is shortsighted.” It was not immediately clear Thursday when the report was submitted to department leadership and what steps, if any, the department had undertaken in response. Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen did not respond to requests for comment Thursday morning. The president of the union that represents officers, corporal Timothy Rice, declined to comment, saying the union had not received the “final report.” Sleigh, in a late November court filing, claimed Delpha’s report was “plainly exculpatory.” He said in an interview Thursday morning that his “jaw went slack” when he read it.  “Everything that I’ve been trying to do for the last six months was already done by the Rutland City Police Department itself,” he said. Sleigh has since asked the state to produce internal communications surrounding the creation of the report.  The internal report notes that Dumas did not end his phone call with the mother of Rheaume’s children when he began pursuing Rheaume. The woman later told Vermont State Police investigators that, as a result, she heard the entire pursuit and fatal crash through Dumas’ phone. She told state police that she had not wanted to press charges against Rheaume and only wanted him to leave the apartment. She was at the courthouse filing for a restraining order when Dumas called. “She said she did not think Rheaume had taken anything and she just wanted him to get some help,” the report states. The post Internal Report Faults Rutland Officers in Trainee’s Fatal Crash appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less