Stanley Burkhardt sat across from a lawyer's desk in late April, handcuffed and dressed in a county jail jumpsuit, and invoked his Fifth Amendment right 700 times in four hours. The questions ranged across decades of his life, but the most pointed ones concerned a series of unsolved murders of teenagers in New Orleans dating back to the late 1970s.
Burkhardt is a former police officer and sex crimes investigator turned convicted child molester. He has cycled through prison repeatedly since 1987, when he was first locked up for mailing child sexual abuse imagery to undercover federal agents. The deposition, conducted by civil attorney Kristi Schubert, marked one of the rare occasions someone has had extended opportunity to question him under oath about those cold cases.
When Schubert asked whether Burkhardt had murdered 19-year-old Dennis Turcotte or 17-year-olds Raymond Richardson and Daniel Dewey, he refused to answer each time. The same applied to questions about 17-year-old Eddie Wells, whose body was pulled from the Mississippi River in 1982 after authorities classified it as a drowning.
"Are you afraid to answer these questions because you don't think you're smart enough to answer without incriminating yourself?" Schubert asked at one point.
"Fifth," Burkhardt replied.
Schubert later remarked, "I don't know if I've ever seen somebody so afraid to answer questions." Burkhardt laughed at that.
In a civil lawsuit, a jury is permitted to assume that a party's silence when pleading the Fifth stems from knowledge of guilt, a legal presumption not allowed in criminal trials. Burkhardt faces claims from Richard Windmann, who alleges Burkhardt sexually abused him as a child. The suit names both Burkhardt and the New Orleans Police Department, which employed him from 1970 to 1987.
The deposition carries added weight because of testimony from Frank Weicks, a retired NOPD officer whom Schubert also deposed. Weicks recalled that the police department had examined Burkhardt as a possible suspect in Wells's death as far back as the mid-1980s. Weicks also appeared on the true-crime podcast New Orleans Unsolved, which has explored the possible connections between Burkhardt and the four deaths.
During his deposition, Schubert confronted Burkhardt with allegations from Weicks's testimony. Weicks had described an incident in which Burkhardt, while serving as an officer, allegedly offered to murder a domestic abuse suspect using an untraceable gun. Weicks said he declined and later reported the offer to a supervisor without apparent consequence to Burkhardt. Weicks also testified that an FBI agent investigating complaints of child sexual abuse against Burkhardt had approached him years before Burkhardt was exposed as a molester.
"Ma'am if I may comment," Weicks said when asked why he didn't report Burkhardt to an outside agency, "I arrested six police officers before retiring. How many cops can say that? Four were pedophiles. One was for theft. One was a drug dealer. I think I paid my dues trying to seek out dirty cops."
Burkhardt pleaded the Fifth to every aspect of Weicks's account.
There was one moment that stood out. When Schubert asked Burkhardt to look at a photograph of Dennis Turcotte, he declined twice, saying "No, thank you." When pressed, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right again.
"Are you afraid to look at the child? Does it bring up too many memories?" Schubert asked.
"Fifth," Burkhardt said. "Fifth."
In an earlier court proceeding in February 2020, Burkhardt had answered differently. When asked directly if he murdered Wells, he said simply, "No." He also described Wells as a homicide victim who had been sexually abused, though not by him.
Authorities re-examined all four deaths after Windmann publicly accused Burkhardt in October 2018 of claiming responsibility for Wells's murder. Investigators confirmed they were reviewing the slayings of Turcotte, Richardson, and Dewey as well, all of whom are suspected to have been killed by the same person or persons over a 21-month span beginning in February 1978. Police have not formally named Burkhardt as a suspect in any of the murders.
Burkhardt's criminal history extends beyond the unsolved deaths. He has admitted in court to molesting Windmann as a child, though his attorneys later argued the conduct was consensual when Windmann reached 17, Louisiana's age of consent at the time. During one arrest, federal agents searching his home found a 12-year-old boy inside; no charges were filed related to that child. Burkhardt has also served time for molesting his nine-year-old niece.
In 2011, a federal judge determined that Burkhardt met the criteria for indefinite civil commitment as a sexually dangerous person under a federal statute. He was conditionally released after four years of treatment. His subsequent incarcerations have centered on parole violations, including secretly using cellphones and accessing social media with accounts using usernames like "boyz4me!"
Most recently, Burkhardt was arrested on July 15 on state parole violation charges and is being held without bail in the Orleans Parish jail. A trial is tentatively scheduled for July 13. An attorney for Burkhardt declined to comment on the deposition.
Author James Rodriguez: "Burkhardt's refusal to answer even the most basic questions about four dead teenagers speaks volumes in a civil courtroom, and juries understand that language perfectly."
Comments