Abbeville police officer cleared of raping prisoner

Two Abbeville detectives worked 10 hours overtime to clear an Abbeville police officer who was accused of raping a female prisoner.

Holly Richard, 30, of Gueydan accused an Abbeville police officer of raping her while she was in the bathroom in the booking room at the Abbeville Police Department recently.

Richard’s allegations said she was raped by the officer while she was bending over the sink in the bathroom in the booking room.

Abbeville Police Detectives Jason Hebert and R.J. Thibodeaux did not learn about the accusations until a couple of hours after she was arrested by two patrolmen and booked into the parish jail.

Richard was first arrested for two counts of auto burglary, and three counts of attempted auto burglary. While she was in the jail, she began saying she was raped by a city police officer. She also had bruises and scars to show that she was raped.

Major Kirk Frith, who is the warden of the jail, was advised of the accusations. He called Abbeville Police Chief Rick Coleman.

Detectives Hebert and Thibodeaux went to the jail to interview her. She had cuts on her inner thighs. However, her story was not clear because she was not 100 percent sure of what the officer looked like.

After the interview, the detectives determined she was not telling the truth about the rape. However, they wanted to be 100 percent certain, so they took her to Abbeville General Hospital for a rape examination by a doctor.

The rape examination determined that there was nothing found to indicate that a rape occurred other than bruises and scratches between her legs.

Detective Thibodeaux said he was able to get her to confess that she was the one who tore her stockings, scratched and bruised herself despite being in handcuffs and shackles. Thibodeaux said when you looked at her, it looked like she was raped.

Thibodeaux said Thibodeaux said Richard confessed to him that she made up the story of the rape because she was mad at the officers for arresting her.

Because of the false rape allegations, more charges were added to Richard. Her new charges are: obstruction of justice charge by manufacturing the evidence, self-mutilation (for scratching herself), and filing a false claim against a law enforcement officer.

Her bond was set at $40,000.