Asking ‘Why?’
Child victims activist rents billboard space for Thevenin family
Billboard questions police officer’s killing of Edson Thevenin.
A former Emma Willard student whose alleged rape by a teacher at the Troy school prompted her to push for passage of the state’s Child Victims Act said she’s donating billboard time to the family of Edson Thevinin, who was shot and killed by a Troy police sergeant in 2016.
Kat Sullivan said she’s donating the signage to allow Thevenin’s family to post a series of questions about his killing on a digital billboard that looks down on Interstate 787 near the Corning Preserve.
The billboard now flashes three different messages: “Edson Thevenin: Because his life matters, LET JUSTICE BE DONE,” “April 17, 2016: Troy Police Sgt. French shot & killed Edson Thevenin. Why?” and “Troy Police and Mayor Madden ARE STILL COVERING UP the facts in the killing of Edson Thevenin. Why?”
The rotating messages — which will appear until Oct. 23 — are patterned after the signs put up by a grieving mother in the 2017 movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” signs that bluntly question how police handled the investigation of her daughter’s unsolved rape and murder.
“Anyone complicit or enabling in the cover-up ... anyone who would attempt to wash away what happened with carefully crafted PR statements is on notice: Do the right thing and hold yourself
accountable immediately,” Sullivan said Monday. “Because Edson Thevenin’s life matters, present tense.”
Thevenin, 37, was fatally shot by Sgt. Randall French on April 17, 2016, after Thevenin fled a DWI traffic stop. Former Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove presented the case to a county grand jury within days of the death, and allowed French to testify without waiving his immunity from prosecution — a decision that virtually ensured French could never be charged in the death. A grand jury declined to indict him.
State prosecutors later charged Abelove with official misconduct and perjury over his handling of the investigation. A local judge dismissed the charges, but the state attorney general’s office has asked an appeals court to reverse that decision.
Thevenin’s widow, Cinthia Thevenin, is suing Troy in federal court. Her lawyers brought to light an internal investigation by the Troy Police Department that found French had improperly forced Thevenin’s car off the road and later made false statements about several elements of the fatal encounter.
Thevenin’s mother, Gertha Depas, said she was pleased with the billboards and worked closely with Sullivan to craft the messages. “Everything she did, she checked with me first. It’s a good way of letting people know what’s going on,” Depas said.
Madden and the police department were accused of keeping the 69-page report, written by Capt. Joseph L. Centanni, a secret from Thevenin’s lawyer. A federal magistrate in Albany later released the document. The report, which was never acted on by the police department’s leaders, recommended sustaining four disciplinary charges against French, including unjustifiable use of deadly force and providing false testimony.
“We are watching. We know what you did. And now I know exactly what the Troy PD and the Rensselaer DA are capable of doing,” Sullivan said in a Monday email to the Times Union. “There is a historical pattern of corruption, lies and cover-ups in these two agencies.”
In response to questions about the billboards, a Madden spokesman issued a statement Monday night saying, “The city believes the fairest solution of this matter is in a courtroom and will abide by the established legal process. As previously stated, as a matter of policy the city does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
He said the city would not comment further.
The Thevenin case has gained additional scrutiny after it was disclosed that the city had hired former Glenville Police Chief Michael D. Ranalli to review the internal affairs report. Madden’s administration claims a memo produced by Ranalli found flaws in Centanni’s report. Madden has cited attorney-client privilege in his refusal to released the memo.
In 2016, Emma Willard reached a settlement with Sullivan, who said the private boarding school shipped her away after she reported being raped by a teacher in 1998. Sullivan spent a portion of the settlement to push for passage of the Child Victims Act, legislation that extended New York’s statute of limitations for claims of child sex abuse.
Sullivan has more recently tangled with the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which is investigating whether her advocacy for passage of the legislation violated spending limits on lobbying.
Sullivan has fought back, arguing that her advocacy falls outside the definition of lobbying — and used her billboard space to assail both JCOPE and the Catholic church, which fought against passage of the Child Victims Act.
“You are harassing a rape survivor that NY state threw to the wolves to die,” Sullivan wrote to a JCOPE staffer in June. She described herself as someone who “is spending her settlement money for social justice and donating to nonprofits. A person who wanted to warn the public about her rapist and about laws that prevented her from police helping her.”
JCOPE, which has faced criticisms in recent year for its handling of sexual misconduct cases, has not commented on its pursuit of Sullivan.