Slain cop’s family still seeks answers

Amid the solemn pomp of her husband’s police funeral and in the days that immediately followed, St. Mary Parish officials who hailed him a hero offered to help her with anything she needed.

Now, nearly 10 months after the gunfight that left Sgt. Rick Riggenbach bleeding to death on a pockmarked rural road, his widow Bonnie says those offers were – for the most part – meaningless and hollow, as she continues seeking answers to questions about what precisely happened.

Expressing feelings of being patronized and mollified, insulted and ignored, the still-grieving widow continues her quest.

And she vows she is not going away.

“I pray every day for God to give me the strength and the courage,” Bonnie Riggenbach said in an interview last week. “I deserve answers to every question I have asked and I am tired of them treating me like a child.”

Wilbert Thibodeaux, a man with a history of mental illness who lived in a car on a Flat Town Road lot, faces a possible death penalty if convicted of fatally shooting Riggenbach on Jan. 26 and the killing of the man on whose property he lived, 78-year-old Eddie Lyons, whose mobile home he allegedly burned. Thibodeaux also allegedly shot two St. Mary sheriff’s deputies who responded at around the same time as Riggenbach to a report of a man carrying a gun and a gasoline can, believed headed for the nearby Cypress Bayou Casino.

SURVIVORS SPEAK

Local officials say their focus is solely on the prosecution of Thibodeaux. They don’t wish to cause Bonnie Riggenbach distress, officials say. Proper administration of justice, in their estimation, demands that she wait along with everyone else for what details may emerge.

Members of a slowly growing chorus with a unique credential for comment, however, say that’s not enough.

“She certainly deserves a hell of a lot of answers,” said Susan McCormack, founder and president of Survivors of the Shield, a support group for widows of New York City police officers killed in the line of duty. McCormack and another Survivors board member were informed of Riggenbach’s concerns prior to a telephone interview last week.

They have difficulty understanding why Bonnie Riggenbach’s request to view video of the gunfight or to get complete answers to her concerns about how her husband was or was not backed up by other officers when he was killed is being refused.

“They should be working with her every step of the way,” another NYPD widow, Lorraine Shanley, said of prosecutors handling the Louisiana case.

Allegations by Bonnie Riggenbach that officials are not forthcoming and, in some cases, testy and rude, the New York widows agree, indicate behavior they deem as shameful.

“Here in New York the district attorney would sit down with her, they would explain what happened,” said Shanley.

A chief concern for Bonnie Riggenbach has been the actions – or inaction – of deputies backing up her husband when he was killed.

The 911 call alerting authorities to Thibodeaux gave a location that is not on the Chitimacha reservation Sgt. Riggenbach routinely patrolled. But he and other Chitimacha officers routinely backed up other local agencies on police calls; likewise, surrounding agencies would back them up if needed on the reservation.

Bonnie Riggenbach said her questions are not rooted in law or liability, but what she sees as a simple moral question: whether police officers acted appropriately, and if other courses of action could have spared her husband’s life.

LEFT TO DIE

What she knows for a fact is that Sgt. Riggenbach was found alone lying on the road when Chief Blaise Smith of the Chitimacha Police arrived on the scene, following the gunfight with Thibodeaux. The two deputies who were involved in the gunfight with Thibodeaux were gone.

Less certain are questions about how many other St. Mary deputies were at the scene and whether they could have done anything to help at the time the bullets flew.

According to witness accounts, the two deputies who arrived around the same time as Riggenbach – Jason Javier and Matthew Strickland – backed their patrol unit out of harm’s way after Thibodeaux wounded them.

Riggenbach was left to fend for himself.

A third deputy – who has since left the St. Mary sheriff’s employ – was nearby. She has been identified as Jamie Moore who, like Strickland, was a newly appointed officer.

It was Moore, other officers have told Bonnie Riggenbach, who drove the wounded Strickland and Javier to a nearby hospital.

Moore, believed now living with relatives in the Mandeville area, could not be reached for comment for this story.

Video of the gunfight, which would give Bonnie Riggenbach a direct view of what happened to her husband and perhaps the presence or movement of other officers, is now part of the case file. One video sequence came from Sgt. Riggenbach’s patrol unit. Another is from surveillance cameras at the casino, across a large field from where the action occurred.

OFF-LIMITS VIDEO

Authorities have denied that there is video from any of the St. Mary Parish patrol cars. However, Bonnie Riggenbach – whose late husband served for 15 years with the SMPSO before working for the Chitimacha – said her understanding is that all St. Mary patrol cars are equipped with automatic cameras.

Assistant District Attorney Tony Saleme, she said, initially promised to let her or her daughter Mary view the video that is available. The offer was rescinded, however.

Bonnie Riggenbach wants to view the videos, even though she realizes doing so will be a difficult task.

Attorneys who have viewed the video say there is nothing in the images that would tend to exculpate Thibodeaux at trial.

Bonnie Riggenbach also wants to know why an internal investigation of the behavior of deputies at the scene has not been done. She is also resentful of publicity Strickland and Javier have been involved with, ranging from an award of bullet-proof vests from the company that makes them to a motorcycle poker run sponsored by a Morgan City American Legion post.

Local media accounts featuring the smiling faces of Strickland and Javier, which made mention of the death of “a Chitimacha police officer” but did not mention her husband by name, infuriated the widow.

Bonnie Riggenbach confronted St. Mary Sheriff Mark Hebert directly about what she termed “publicity stunts” and while she says the sheriff was at all times courteous, no information about the case emerged.

Hebert has consistently refused to discuss anything regarding the case and has not returned phone calls to the Tri-Parish Times since the shooting.

Following the Hebert conversation, Riggenbach said, she received a call from Saleme, rebuking her for words she had with the sheriff. During that conversation, Riggenbach said, Saleme told her she would not be permitted to see the videos.

“I felt like I was being punished,” Bonnie Riggenbach said, noting authorities had also criticized her for speaking to the media about some of her concerns.

Riggenbach and Saleme had at one point discussed what was known about the shooting. Riggenbach said she asked the assistant district attorney directly about the actions of Strickland and Javier.

“I asked him if they ran,” Riggenbach said. “He gave me an answer that didn’t tell me anything so I asked him again, telling him it was a yes or no answer. ‘Did they run?’”

Riggenbach said the prosecutor replied, “They left.”

Saleme was contacted for this story and said he would not discuss the conversation, citing his own wish to honor the confidentiality that is expected in discussions between prosecutors and victim survivors. He was told of Riggenbach’s recollection – to a conversation witnessed by her daughter and at least one other attorney – and did not dispute her account.

PROTECTING THE CASE

A call to St. Mary District Attorney Phillip Haney from Riggenbach followed the conversation with Saleme. No comfort resulted, Riggenbach said. She was told she still could not see the video.

“I thought we had a very upfront conversation with her,” Haney said. “She is the wife of the victim of a homicide, but I can’t comfortably have a conversation with someone who might damage my case.”

Some of the concerns Bonnie Riggenbach expressed, Haney said, could affect the credibility of other witnesses at trial.

Refusing to let her see the video, he said, is a tactical decision.

According to Riggenbach, Haney said he did not want the defense to suggest that any emotion she shows during victim-impact testimony, which might occur, is due to anger over what is on video.

Haney did not dispute her account.

The video, defense attorneys have confirmed, is in their file and has been viewed by them.

An option other than the video that could answer questions Bonnie Riggenbach has lies with the Louisiana State Police.

Although the case involved St. Mary deputies, Sheriff Hebert asked that the State Police investigate.

Two of their investigators came to the Riggenbach home days after the fallen officer was laid to rest.

Bonnie Riggenbach said they had questions for her, but that she also had questions for them. She wanted information, particularly since she had received conflicting accounts of what occurred from various law enforcement officers.

The investigators, she said, refused to provide her with any information. Riggenbach said one was polite, but that the other became rude and raised his voice to her.

A State Police spokesman, Trooper Stephen Hammons, said his agency’s report was completed in August and that copies have been furnished to prosecutors.

Hammons said the report is comprehensive, and examines various circumstances leading up to the crimes allegedly committed by Thibodeaux.

It is not at this point a public record, and would likely not be until all judicial proceedings concerning Thibodeaux have been concluded.

But advocates for police families, such as members of Survivors of the Shield, said one way authorities could help Bonnie Riggenbach would be to go over the report with her.

Bonnie Riggenbach said she’s considered writing Gov. Bobby Jindal, seeking his intervention to direct State Police to disclose information in the report to her.

COURT CASE IN NEUTRAL

While the law allows for various judicial records to be kept under wraps, it does not necessarily require that be the case.

As for the court proceedings, attorneys for both sides say the case is pretty much at a standstill.

Attorneys for Thibodeaux, who has a long history of treatment for mental illness, according to relatives and acquaintances, want him to be examined by a sanity commission to determine if he is competent to stand trial.

If he is found not competent, the clock can be stopped while he receives treatment geared toward restoring his competency.

Although the panel of professionals who would make the initial determination is collectively called a “sanity” commission, it is not charged with determining if Thibodeaux is sane or insane. Rather, their job is to determine whether he is able to assist his attorneys with his defense.

St. Mary Parish Public Defender Craig Colwart, who is among attorneys representing Thibodeaux, said the State of Louisiana currently has no money to pay experts the defense will need to allow a sanity commission to move forward.

The details, he hopes, might be ironed out by the end of October.

Meanwhile, Bonnie Riggenbach vows to press authorities in whatever way she responsibly can so that answers to her questions might emerge.

An organization of Louisiana survivors of law enforcement deaths say they are ready to offer help and support to Sgt. Riggenbach’s family.

SURVIVORS AT READY

James Cook, president of Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) in Louisiana, the state branch of a nationwide organization, is familiar with the Riggenbach case.

The quest for answers, he said, is fully understandable for someone in Bonnie Riggenbach’s position.

“Usually the prosecutor has an advocate that speaks with the family and tries to keep them informed, though I am not sure they treat a law enforcement family differently than they do any other type of victim,” said Cook, whose police reserve son was the victim of an accidental shooting by another officer. “I know of some cases where there is good communication and the family feels they have had good input on it. I can’t say that is true with all prosecutors and it probably isn’t. It will depend on the prosecutors themselves.”

COPS has reached out to Bonnie Riggenbach and not yet heard back from her, though its members hope she will contact them. Next year, there are expected to be several ceremonies honoring police officers slain in 2013, which will include Sgt. Riggenbach’s case.

“I know that Mrs. Riggenbach wants to see justice done,” Cook said. “This is her way of handling the grief right now; where she is putting her energy. Grief is a strange and hard thing to go through and everyone handles it differently. Some people want to know every detail of what happened. Some people don’t want to know anything. But you put your energy into what is going to occupy you, and you build your life from there.”

No matter how her quest for knowledge fares, Cook and other survivors say their sad experiences tell them that for Bonnie Riggenbach the worst is far from over.

“These trials are very difficult for folks to go through,” Cook said. “It just keeps the wound open.”