“Are you afraid to answer?”: Ex-cop pleads the Fifth more than 700 times in sworn testimony
David Hammer and Ramon Antonio Vargas, WWLTV
Lamothe Law Firm attorney Kristi Schubert recently deposed ex-NOPD sex crimes detective Stanley Burkhardt for a civil lawsuit. Burkhardt is the alleged perpetrator of sexual abuse of one of her clients. Burkhardt invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 700 times while she questioned him under oath.
Aside from Burkhardt being a convicted child molester, “Investigators have consistently stopped short of describing Burkhardt as a suspect in the strangulation murders of three teenagers with ties to New Orleans in the late 1970s. But there have been numerous clear signs that he has been considered of interest to investigations into those slayings, along with the 1982 death of a teen whose body was recovered from the Mississippi River.”
“Schubert’s deposition of Burkhardt is significant because it was one of the rare times someone has been able to ask questions of him for so long, including about the decades-old murders, while he was sworn to tell the truth.”
Schubert deposed Burkhardt for more than 4 hours. At one point Schubert asked, “Are you afraid to answer these questions because you don’t think you’re smart enough to answer without incriminating yourself?”
“Gaining the scarce opportunity to question him under oath, Schubert bluntly asked Burkhardt whether he had murdered Turcotte, Richardson, Dewey and Wells while he was on the police force and they were in his proximity. He pleaded the Fifth each time.”
“Meanwhile, Burkhardt has also grappled with the still pending lawsuit from…” Schubert’s client. “It demands damages from Burkhardt and New Orleans’ city government over abuse that…” Schubert’s client “…alleges was inflicted on him in his youth by Burkhardt after the defendant met the plaintiff while on the job as a police officer.”
