By Katy Savage
The man charged with killing a Rutland City police officer and injuring two others in a two-mile high-speed pursuit to Woodstock Avenue on Friday, July 7 pleaded not guilty in Rutland Criminal Court on Monday, July 10.
Tate Rheaume, 20, attended court virtually from his hospital bed at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington where he was being treated with broken ribs and spinal chord injuries. He’s facing charges of grossly negligent operation of a motor vehicle with death resulting and attempting to elude with death resulting after he crashed his 2006 Dodge Ram into a police cruiser driven by Rutland City Police Officer Jessica Ebbighausen.
Ebbighausen, 19, was ejected from her vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. She was just hired by the police department as a part-time officer in May and was driving the cruiser as part of a training program under supervision of Officer Richard Caravaggio, who was in the passenger seat. Caravaggio was treated at Rutland Regional Medical Center and released Saturday. A third officer, Kelsey Parker, who was driving a separate police cruiser, was also treated at the hospital and released on Friday.
Investigation by Vermont State Police found neither Ebbighausen nor Caravaggio were wearing seat belts.
Police said the pursuit started around 2:51 p.m. July 7 after Rheaume had interactions with police officers in Rutland Town and Rutland City earlier that day.
Rheaume’s ex-girlfriend Jasmine Baker, 21, called police the afternoon of July 7 due to an altercation at her grandmother’s house at Adams Street in Rutland Town. Baker told police they have two children together, almost 2 and 1, and had been in an on-again, off-again relationship since 2019. Baker said Rheaume had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and had been off his medication, which causes him to become more obsessed with Baker.
Rheaume began calling Baker around 10 a.m. July 7 by phone and repeatedly continued to contact her throughout the day. Rheaume demanded to see the children and take them to lunch. Baker told police she was uncomfortable with him coming over to her residence at 76 East Washington Street in Rutland City due to his mental status. She told Rheaume to go to her grandmother’s residence on Adams Street in Rutland Town, where he could see the children under supervision.
Baker drove to her grandmother’s residence on Adams Street in Rutland Town and Rheaume came later. Baker said Rheaume ran into her grandmother’s house and demanded to see the children. Baker continued to refuse to let him take the children to lunch. The Rutland Town Police Dept.was then contacted to help and Rheaume left the residence without incident.
Baker and her new boyfriend, Zachary Trombley, 32, traveled to the courthouse in Rutland City just before 3 p.m. to get a relief from abuse order against Rheaume. While Baker and Davis were inside the courthouse, Trombley received an alert on his phone from newly installed surveillance cameras that showed Rheaume was “breaking in,” and standing in the living room at their residence at 76 East Washington St.
Officers Jarod Dumas of Rutland City Police and John Dickerson responded to East Washington Street and made contact with Rheaume. As police attempted to press charges, Rheaume fled the residence in his 2006 silver Dodge Ram. Three police cruisers, driven by Dumas, Ebbighausen and Parker, pursued him.
Onlookers said Rheaume’s truck was traveling 50-70 miles per hour and weaved in and out of traffic as cruisers followed him.
Rheaume later told police he was under the influence of cannabis. He was driving his truck past Stewart’s Shops parking lot when he saw Rutland City police chasing him. Rheaume said that he didn’t want to get pulled over because he wanted to get into the Marine Corps and believed that an arrest would hurt his ambitions. He said he wanted to get to his mother’s house where he could sleep.
Rheaume said that he steered into the oncoming lane to go around a slower vehicle and didn’t realize that there was a Rutland City police cruiser approaching in the oncoming lane. He said that he didn’t see it until just before the collision and was unable to avoid it.
“Mr. Rheaume said that he was thinking of everything and nothing all at once,” Sergeant Jay Riggen said in his affidavit, adding, “Notably, his story regarding how this collision occurred changed several times during our conversation.
“I asked him to describe his subjective feeling of impairment while he was driving during this incident, rating his impairment on a scale of 0-10. Mr. Rheaume told me that he felt that he was a seven or eight on that scale,” Riggen said.
The cruiser driven by Ebbighausen rolled over and hit the other police cruiser driven by Parker before both vehicles came to rest. All three vehicles had substantial damage.
Nearly three dozen Vermont law-enforcement officers and first responders escorted Ebbighausen’s body in a procession along Route 7 from the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington back to the city on July 7.
The Medical Examiner’s Office completed the autopsy on Ebbighausen on Saturday, July 8 and determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma.
“We’re hurting right now,” Police Chief Brian Kilkullen said at a press conference. “I think it’s more important now than ever to ask for the support from the community.”
Ebbighausen, of Ira, wanted to be a police officer since she was 9 years old. She did an internship with the police department two years ago.
“We started recruiting her around that time,” Kilkullen said.
Ebbighausen was hired May 23 and was a level II certified police officer, slated to begin her full-time Police Academy training in August.
“She always had a smile on her face,” Kilkullen said. “She worked to get where she was today and we were looking forward to having her as part of our family.”
The death of Ebbighausen has garnered national attention.
“Jessica exemplifies the very best of Vermonters, heroically responding without hesitation to help in a dangerous situation,” Rep. Becca Balint said in a statement.
A candlelight vigil for Ebbighausen is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 12, at the Rutland City Police Department. Funeral arrangements are pending. The incident remains under investigation and police said additional charges are possible.
Rheaume is currently being held on $100,000 bail.
