Press Conference 14th February.
Sergeant Williams - On January 31st 2022 at approximately 9.06 am. officers were called and responded to the 100 block of Ranulet Drive, in reference to a missing juvenile, who we all know now is Codi Bigsby. Officers arrived on scene at 9.16 am. and 8 minutes later, multiple canine units arrived to assist. Within the hour command staff and multiple detectives were already on scene. At 10.47 am. we formally requested the FBI to bring additional resources and technical support. At 11 am., the Hampton Police Division disseminated a press release and social media blast, which reached hundred of thousands of people within our community. With the assistance of the local media, that reach extended well into the millions. By 11.30, the FBI arrived on scene bringing additional agents, as well as a plane to our aide. At 12.29, a reverse 911 call went out to residents and neighbourhoods requesting information. By 1 pm. officers had already searched the immediate surrounding areas of the apartment complex. Officers and detectives began canvassing every house, while canine searches continued and drones were searching from the air.
Additionally, Mr. Bigsby, Cori's father had arrived at police headquarters and began speaking with investigators. In the coming days, the search woluld evolve into a massive co-ordinated effort, with our federal regional and local partners, to include citizen volunteers. Searches continued by land, air and sea. Dive teams were deployed and drone teams scanned over 900 acres of remote marsh waterways and woodlands. As our search was taking place, investigative and forensic personnel worked around the clock to gather and process evidence, to speak to anyone that might have knowledge about Codi's whereabouts. On the evening of Thursday Feb. 3rd, Cory Bigsby was arrested and transported to lock-up, where he was served with 7 charges for felony child neglect. On Friday, Feb. 4th, our search efforts began to transition into an investigative phase, and the massive grid search came to a slow conclusion. Since that day, our goal to find Cori has not changed, our search has not stopped. Investigators are continuing to process immense amounts of evidence, and follow up with every possible lead. With that Chief Talbot will now provide additional comments.
Chief - I'm going to begin this press conference like I started all of the press conferences with this case. I'm here on behalf of 4 yr. old Codi Bigsby. It has been 14 heart wrenching days since he was reported missing by his father, Cory Bigsby. Sergeant Williams did a great job laying out the timeline of events and he did an excellent job laying out all the work that we've put into this investigation. I am extremely proud of the work that was done, not only by the Hampton Police Division, but by our partner agencies and by members of the public who have been out there every single day with us, for that we are extremely grateful. An investigation like this has a lot of moving parts, you've just heard that.
One aspect of an investigation of this nature is that, it is important that I keep in my mind all of the aspects of this investigation to ensure that it has the integrity that it needs to have, and that is primarily why I'm speaking to you today. This past Friday in an effort to ensure that everything that we've done has been consistent with our best, and our obligation. We reviewed video footage of some of the interviews, involving Cory Bigsby. So Mr. Bigsby came to the Hampton Police Division, I'll remind you, on Jan. 31st. to assist with this investigation. He had his 3 small children with him. Around 2.30 that day Mr. Bigsby sat for a formal interview with our detectives. The detective in that case began the conversation by reminding Mr. Bigsby that he was there voluntarily, he was not being detained by us, and that he was...he had the right to an attorney, if he chose to have an attorney with him. Mr. Bigsby decided to waive his rights at that time and to answer our questions. He continued to answer questions for several hours and at some point it was suggested that we would like Mr. Bigsby to take a polygraph examination. Part of that polygraph examination wasn't given by our agency, it was in fact given by a federal agency. Again, being reminded of his rights to an attorney, a right not to speak, a right not to incriminate himself. He received and he waived those rights and he took the polygraph examination. Upon the conclusion of the polygraph examination, Mr. Bigsby resumed his interview with our detectives and our partner agencies. In the midst of this follow-up interview, there was a heated exchange between Mr. Bigsby and the lead detective in this case. The heated exchange came about when there was a discussion about the results of that polygraph exam. I won't discuss the result, I'll just say, there was a heated back and forth. In the midst of this heated exchange, Mr. Bigsby made a statement, that I believe was mishandled by the Hampton Police Division. He made a statement that indicated that he wanted to have legal counsel there with him. My assessment of his statement in that moment and a statement that he made several minutes later, that was similar, expressing a desire for legal counsel. My assessment is that his desires should have been honoured. They weren't. Ultimately, a decision like this, that surrounds what we will do....what the court system will do in response to this episode, is for the commonwealth attorney, for Anton Bell. But we have our own obligation here, we didn't meet it, frankly. We have our own obligation to maintain the highest standards of conduct to make sure that we're not skirting any lines that appear to be inappropriate or are questionable. We also have a standard that involves every member in this organisation providing clear and concise, and accurate information all the way up the chain of command, so that we can make the best decisions, as it relates to any investigation, in particular, when it comes to seeking justice for a 4 yr. old child.
To give you a sense of the timing of what occurred - the problematic behaviour that was brought to my attention, was brought to me late in the afternoon, this past Friday. As soon as we discovered this, we ordered the entire command staff into the Police Station, to do a full audit of all of the video recordings of our interactions with Mr. Bigsby. That occurred throughout the weekend. Most of us were here all weekend completing that. Our analysis, our audit of that video left us in a much better place, in terms of understanding what happened. It also allows us to be reassured, and allows me to reassure the public that the charges that were filed against Mr. Bisby are appropriate. Mr. Bigsby is the only person that we've found evidence against to indicate we need to continue to pay attention to him in order to find out where Codi Bigsby might be, and what may have happened to him. Nothing that occurred has shaken my confidence, surrounding whether or not we paid attention to the right person, or whether or not we missed some key detail. We have not. Our investigation is sound. Moving forward we will continue to look at all the evidence, many of you have reported some of the work that we did this weekend. We are searching different areas of the city, we are exploring the forensic evidence even further. We're continuing to take this investigation, wherever the facts are going to take us. I deeply regret what I found out on Friday, make no mistake about it. I am extremely disappointed with, not only having to be the distraction that I spoke of previously, but I'm disappointed that we have done anything that may have slowed us down on our quest to bring justice to this child. That will be handled appropriately. Anybody who didn't live up to the standards that are important to us, will be held accountable and we will make sure that we continue to work as hard as we possibly can to bring more facts forward in this case, and ultimately bring some degree of justice. With that I will take your questions.
Reporter - Has the lead detective been dismissed from the case?
Chief - We have a new leadership team and a new lead detective that we are going to have take over this case.
Reporter - Is the officer on any type of leave?
Chief - The detective has been relieved of duty at this point.
Reporter - Will this in any way jeopardise, or put in peril either the existing charges, or future charges against Mr. Bigsby?
Chief - The existing charges are sound, and they are based on evidence that was obtained in the first hours of our interactions with Mr. Bigsby. I've been in contact with the Commonwealth Attorney extensively, including right before I walked into this room. I believe that he will say more about that. We feel confident that those charges are appropriate and will stand.
Reporter - At an initial press conference you went on record and said that he was there completely voluntarily, so at that point, had you not looked at any of the interrogation video?
Chief - That is correct. Just to be clear, reviewing nearly a hundred hours of video was a herculean task that required more than a dozen staff members, who spent most of their weekend here. It was a big effort. It is just not viable to routinely view every second of videotape. It's not viable, but that's not an excuse for anything. My comments that I made previously were made based on, frankly, bad information, and that just can't happen and we will do everything that we need to do to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Reporter - So, since he was the lead detective, have you worked on other high profile missing cases like this, where he would have been put in similar situations and did he act appropriately?
Chief - Again, a full internal affairs investigation will be conducted. Just like we paid attention to the facts in assessing Cory Bigsby's relationship to what happened here. We have to look at the facts to see exactly how everybody's behaviour has impacted this investigation. It is too soon to say whether or not the mistakes that were made were intentional, or if there is simply a different legal interpretation that is causing this dismay and my unhappiness, frankly. We have a lot of work to do to figure out exactly what occurred, and until we do that work, we're not going to be able to say whether or not this could impact other cases. But that is certainly something that I'm tracking and we need to pay attention to it.
Reporter - Was he still at the police station willingly up until he was arrested?
Chief - So the question of whether or not he was here willingly, ultimately seems like a simple question to answer to - yes or no. But the way that our criminal justice system works, it happens to be a question for the Commonwealth Attorney to answer, and I would prefer to allow him to make that assessment.
Reporter - In court documents. it says that he had confessed to police about leaving the children home alone. That's where the child neglect charges came from. Did he confess to that before or after he asked for legal counsel?
Chief - Before, before.
Reporter - Can you confirm what date was it that he had the polygraph, and when the request for legal counsel was?
Chief - The polygraph examination occurred somewhere after 10 pm. on Jan. 31st. He made the request that I've alluded to, where he mentions an attorney on Feb. 1st, somewhere after 4 o'clock in the morning.
Reporter - We were told family got involved and kind of asked for an attorney ahead of time. Can you speak to when that happened compared to when he actually asked for one himself?
Chief - I can't. I don't know precisely when family got involved. I can tell you that Mr. Bigsby's....just to restate, Mr. Bigsby request came around 4.13 in the morning of Feb. 1st, and again, at around 4.20 on Feb. 1st.
Reporter - You mention that you were there with his 3 children, do they play a role in this at all, I mean they were with him and I know you guys probably asked them some questions. Where do they stand with this?
Chief - I'd rather not comment on our interactions with his children, other than I'd like to repeat what I said previously, that they're doing well right now. I'd like to leave it at that.
Reporter - As far as the search from now, we've heard from different search party volunteers in the community that are helping. They want to know if their efforts are worth it. They want to search for but they want to know if they're searching in the right areas, do they keep going if they're volunteering, or what do you have to say to that?
Chief - Keep going, keep going. This is all of our obligation, we're all here for Codi Bigsby. I don't know if those efforts will be fruitful, but what do you do? Do you sit and do nothing? I don't think so. I think that we all have to consider what we might be able to do that's helpful. I believe that the number of people that have decided on their own to traipse about in the woods, and dig through marshes and all these other things, god bless them, keep going.
Reporter - Can you speak to a jacket that was found....a toddler sized jacket that was found on Saturday. Do you all know if that is tied to Codi's case? Or if it was just a random jacket?
Chief - We do not know. We are investigating.
Reporter - Do you have anymore information about the last time Codi was confirmed to be seen? Has that changed (inaudible)?
Chief - I don't have information that I believe I can rely upon, to answer that question.
Reporter - Is your team currently investigating any remains being found in the city right now?
Chief - Yes.
Reporter - Do you have any reason to believe they could be Codi's?
Chief - I do not have any reason to believe they could be Codi's, no.
Reporter - What is your understanding of why Cory Bigsby was denied legal counsel initially?
Chief - That has to be investigated, I do not know. I do not have a good answer to that question. I don't have an answer that I'm confident in. At some point I'll need to be confident and I'll need to understand that much better than I do now.
Reporter - Do you feel like this could build a distrust between the department, the case and the community?
Chief - Yes it could, and I'm here to avoid that, and to talk openly about what happened, and to transparently lay out what occurred. This is something that we uncovered, this was not something that was exposed. We did our own audit, we looked at our own conduct and we've decided we didn't meet the standard that we need to adhere to. It is sad but true, there's no insurance policy against the human condition. There are several hundred people in this organisation, many of them have been involved in one aspect or another in the investigation and when you have an investigation of this magnitude, sooner or later you're going to run into something that isn't what you wanted it to be. That's what we have now. That's not to say that you're always going to find what you would deem to be misconduct, but my experience has been that this is a very difficult business and these types of things are possible.
Reporter - So, when you think about an interrogation between the lead detective and Bigsby, were there others watching that interrogation, maybe through video or like a window of some sort that saw it, and so does that mean...and if so are other officers also being investigated and maybe placed on leave or maybe dismissed as well?
Chief - There are a number of people in my organisation that need to be called to account for the answers to those questions. We do have policies and systems in place that should have allowed us to do better than we did. We also frankly, had a case here in which an experienced detective is doing his job, has done great work throughout his career and to some degree you want to be able to rely upon that. All that, broke down somehow, and we need to spend some time figuring out how it broke down, why it broke down and putting things in place so that it doesn't happen again.
Reporter - How long has that detective been with the department?
Chief - 11 years, approximately.
Reporter - And to clarify, he's no longer a member of the department?
Chief - No, I did not say that.
Reporter - So he's off the case, but he's still with the department. Can you confirm what....can you explain that please?
Chief - I'd like to leave it at that.
Reporter - So you can't say if he's placed on paid leave, non-paid leave?
Chief - I can say that he is on paid leave.
Reporter - Was there anything specific that prompted the review for evidence, or was it just the attorney (inaudible)?
Chief - We are not oblivious to the narrative that is being driven around about our conduct in this case. We pay attention. You don't have to walk up to the Hampton Police Division with a formal complaint for us to pay attention to you. We heard members of the public who expressed concerns, that was one of the factors that resulted in us deciding to look deeply into what we did. When we looked, we didn't like what we found, and that's why we're here.
Reporter - Can you just reiterate the next steps. I know you mentioned an overall kind of investigation. Who's going to lead that? Is that going to come from outside the department, within the department?
Chief - We are fully capable of continuing forward with this investigation. What we are doing moving forward, is putting together a fresh set of eyes and ears, and looking again at every step that we've taken moving forward.
Reporter - So will areas that will be searched from now on, will that be based on evidence that indicates (inaudible) in that area?
Chief - Yes. We could certainly come across evidence, or some facts, or one of the members of the public who's out and about could...like what just occurred over this weekend, could say something or do something that causes us to go back to where we've already been, or to search new ground. That's all still in play.
Reporter - Other than the jacket can you comment on if anything else was found at the weekend near that?
Chief - No, I don't have additional information about that.
Reporter - I know you mentioned Anton Bell speaking to some of the court things, but just on a general perspective, is there any chance that these neglect charges could be dropped, and he could be free to go out of prison because of the mistakes that your lead detective made?
Chief - There's no reasonable belief that I have, that, that would be the case. In fact, we've looked....let's make no mistake about it, the most important thing here as it relates to that question is, is Mr. Bigsby in jail appropriately based on facts and evidence that we've obtained lawfully? Absolutely. Absolutely, there's no question about that, that I have at this point. As a matter of fact, based on the thorough audit that we've done, I'm more certain than I was when I spoke about it previously. He's in a jail cell for appropriate reasons, and we learned that through an appropriate investigation.
Reporter - At this point, is he aware of what's taken place? And his defense attorney as well?
Chief - We've taken steps to make sure that his attorney is aware of what I'm explaining to you.
Thank you.
Courtesy of @Allabouttrial
