The attorney for a Rutland County man facing a murder charge in a fatal crash that killed an officer is asking a judge to reconsider an order holding his client without bail, citing an internal affairs report that strongly criticizes the actions of police leading to the deadly chase.
David Sleigh, a lawyer for 22-year-old Tate Rheaume, in recent court filings based his request largely on an internal affairs report made public in November. The report noted policy violations by Rutland City officers in the pursuit that led to the death of a fellow officer, 19-year-old Jessica Ebbighausen.
The internal affairs report became public through a court filing by Sleigh in the case against Rheaume, who is facing an aggravated murder charge in the death of Ebbighausen during the high-speed Rutland chase in July 2023.
Sleigh wrote in filings that he learned of the internal affairs investigation conducted by a city police commander through depositions of officers in the case and then subpoenaed it from the city police department.
The internal report stated that Ebbighausen’s death was “preventable” if officers had followed the proper procedures. The policy violations, according to the report, ranged from not having the proper authority to initiate the pursuit to not following procedures while the chase was underway.
“(I)t is now beyond dispute that the initiation and conduct of the pursuit leading to the fatal crash was unlawful and conducted in violation of applicable statutes, rules, and policies,” Sleigh wrote in his recent filings.
“Disturbingly,” the attorney added, “the findings of the internal investigation were purposefully
withheld from the defense in a deliberate attempt to deprive him of a fair trial.”
Sleigh wrote in the filings in Rutland County Superior criminal court that Rutland City police leadership kept silent about the report’s findings for months.
He cited a Brady letter Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan, the lead prosecutor in the case, issued against retiring Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen, as well as retired Rutland City Police Commander Sam Delpha, who conducted and authored the report.
A Brady letter, which gets its name from a national court case, is filed when an officer’s credibility is called into question.
Sullivan wrote in that letter that Kilcullen and Delpha had improperly failed to disclose the findings of the internal affairs report that criticized police officers for their roles in the vehicle pursuit to “shape” the case against Rheaume. However, Sullivan said in a recent court filing that any possible police department policy violations do not negate Rheaume’s criminal responsibility in the case.
“The IA report is replete with evidence that will illuminate the RCPD’s bias and motivation to obscure the truth relating to the fatal crash,” Sleigh wrote in his recent filings. “All of that will be introduced to challenge the credibility of the State’s critical witnesses.”
Kilcullen announced his retirement last month, and has not responded to requests for comment about what prompted that decision to leave.
The pursuit leading to the murder charge against Rheaume, according to police, ended on Woodstock Avenue in Rutland when he slammed nearly head-on into a cruiser driven by Ebbighausen.
Ebbighausen had been with the Rutland City Police Department as a part-time officer and was set to begin training the following month to get her full-time certification.
Rheaume, 22, was also injured in the crash. He 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.
Several months later, Rheaume was arraigned on the upgraded charges, including the aggravated murder count, and has been held without bail since then.
The charges were upgraded following additional investigation into the crash by both Vermont and New York state police. According to that investigation, Rheaume engaged in dangerous driving at high speeds on the heavily traveled Woodstock Avenue, also known as Route 4, before the crash.
Rheaume, through an earlier attorney who was representing him at that time, challenged the court order holding him without bail. However, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in August 2024 that Rheaume would remain behind bars while the case against him remained pending.
Sleigh argued in his filings that the most recent revelations in the internal affairs report “substantially” weakened the state’s case against his client, warranting a striking of the order that Rheaume be held without bail.
In a 16-page response he wrote along with Rutland County Deputy State’s Attorney Daron Raleigh, Sullivan said he opposed Sleigh’s request to the court. According to the prosecutors, the findings of the internal affairs report do not change that it was Rheaume who was driving the truck that struck and killed Ebbighausen.
“Mr. Rheaume was the one who pressed his accelerator until he was traveling at an extremely high rate of speed; Mr. Rheaume was the one who chose to turn into Officer Ebbighausen’s lane of travel; Mr. Rheaume is the one who took no evasive action before hitting Officer Ebbighausen; and Mr. Rheaume is the one who did not brake,” the prosecutors wrote.
“Those actions and inactions by Mr. Rheaume are the natural and continuous sequence of events that killed Officer Ebbighausen,” the prosecutors added. “That sequence of events did not require any actions by another person to come into being.”
Sleigh said Thursday that, should the judge hold a hearing on his request seeking his client’s release, one of the people he would want to testify would be Kilcullen.
Sleigh has called on state and federal authorities to investigate Kilcullen for criminal charges, including obstruction of justice, for his handling of the internal affairs matter and failure to disclose its findings.
Sullivan declined to comment Thursday.
Rheaume is currently held at the Springfield prison. If convicted of the aggravated murder charge — the most serious state criminal charge — he faces up to life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
