Stanley Burkhardt, a convicted child molester and former New Orleans police department (NOPD) investigator of sex crimes against children, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 700 times during a recent deposition. The questioning, which took place in a civil lawsuit filed by an alleged victim, included inquiries about a series of unsolved murders of young people connected to Burkhardt.
Burkhardt, who has been in and out of prison for decades, was deposed for four hours in late April by civil attorney Kristi Schubert. Throughout the proceeding, he repeatedly answered “Fifth” to questions, including when asked whether he committed the murders. While his silence cannot be used against him in a criminal case, in a civil context, a jury may infer that he avoided answering truthfully to prevent self-incrimination.
Schubert asked Burkhardt at one point, “Are you afraid to answer these questions because you don’t think you’re smart enough to answer without incriminating yourself?” Burkhardt replied, “Fifth.” When Schubert remarked, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen somebody so afraid to answer questions,” Burkhardt laughed.
The deposition is significant because it is one of the few times Burkhardt has been questioned under oath for an extended period, particularly about the decades-old murders. Investigators have never officially named Burkhardt a suspect in the strangulation deaths of three teenagers in the late 1970s, but evidence suggests he has been of interest. These cases include the murders of Dennis Turcotte, 19, and 17-year-olds Raymond Richardson and Daniel Dewey, as well as the 1982 death of teenager Eddie Wells, whose body was found in the Mississippi River.
Retired NOPD officer Frank Weicks, deposed earlier in the same lawsuit, testified that his agency had considered Burkhardt a suspect in Wells’ death as far back as the mid-1980s. Weicks also recalled that Burkhardt once offered to kill a domestic abuse suspect with an untraceable gun. “No, not on my watch,” Weicks recalled telling Burkhardt.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Richard Windmann, publicly accused Burkhardt in 2018 of claiming responsibility for Wells’ death. Windmann, who suffered childhood sexual abuse from multiple adults, including Burkhardt, filed the lawsuit against Burkhardt and the city of New Orleans. The case also involves abusive leaders of Boy Scout troop 137, which was the subject of the 2023 Netflix documentary “Scouts Honor.”
During the deposition, Schubert asked Burkhardt if he murdered Turcotte, Richardson, Dewey, and Wells while on the police force. He pleaded the fifth each time. When asked to look at a photo of Turcotte, Burkhardt said, “No, thank you,” twice. Schubert asked, “Are you afraid to look at the child? Does it bring up too many memories?” Burkhardt replied, “Fifth. Fifth.”
Burkhardt’s criminal history includes a 1987 conviction for mailing child sexual abuse imagery, despite his career investigating child abuse. He has been imprisoned and released multiple times, most recently on July 15, 2025, for alleged parole violations, and is held on $100,000 bail. He has also been committed under a federal law for sexually dangerous individuals but was conditionally released after four years of treatment.
His parole violations allegedly include using cellphones and the internet, accessing social media, and commenting on photos of children with an account password “boyz4me!”. The civil lawsuit from Windmann seeks damages for abuse that Windmann alleges occurred when Burkhardt was a police officer. A trial for Burkhardt’s parole violation is tentatively set for July 13.
In a February 2020 court proceeding, Burkhardt admitted to molesting Windmann, though his attorneys later claimed the activity was consensual when Windmann was 17. In the recent deposition, Schubert asked if that admission was true. Burkhardt answered, “Fifth.”
