By Robert Chappell
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LA CROSSE, WI (365 Media Foundation, Inc) — A La Crosse family is impatient for justice after a man driving a pickup truck failed to stop at a stop sign and struck 27-year-old Tariana Thompson on May 18. Thompson died nine days later.
La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke has not yet filed any charge against Richard Myron, 61, but has arranged for a homicide inquest, a six-person jury that will hear the evidence on Monday and advise whether charges are warranted.
“We really don’t understand” why Myron hasn’t been charged, said Terrance Thompson, Tariana’s father. “The day my daughter passed away, he should have been locked up and charged that day.”
“An outgoing person”
Tariana Thompson was mother to a one-year-old girl, and had recently embarked on “a health journey.” She made videos featuring herself and her baby on TikTok, often chronicling her commitment to health, wellness and exercise.
“She was an outdoors person. Loved nature,” Terrance Thompson said. “Loved spending time with her daughter, making TikTok videos … She loved going to a park. She loved watching the eagles and stuff like that. She was just an outgoing person.”
He said it was unusual for her to ride a bike, but she was up for something new. She posted on social media that she was renting an e-bike, and that followers should give her a honk on their car horns for motivation if they saw her biking around LaCrosse’s North Side that day.
“She usually goes to the gym that’s in the apartment building where she stayed. But that day she decided to ride a bike, and she hasn’t ridden a bike since she was like 14 or 15 years old,” Terrance Thompson said. “So the day she decided to ride a bike, she rode to the north side, and my daughter ain’t never make it home.”
Thompson said his daughter underwent several surgeries to reduce brain swelling, but suffered two strokes and began to experience organ failure. It became clear that she was brain dead and would not recover.
“They were doing their best. It was nine days she had to fight,” he said. “We didn’t want our daughter to just keep on suffering like that. So we just really had the feeling to turn off the machine and she passed away at 10:27, Wednesday, May 27.”
The Thompson family has opened an online fundraiser to help defray medical costs, legal costs and to support Tariana Thompson’s daughter. The fundraiser, on the fundraising site GoFundMe, has raised nearly $9,000.
The incident
Wisconsin Department of Transportation and LaCrosse Police Department reports indicate that Thompson was riding southbound on Avon Street, crossing Saint Cloud Street, while Myron was driving his truck eastbound on Saint Cloud Street. Witnesses told police that he did not stop at the stop sign on Saint Cloud Street, and struck Thompson, who was thrown across the intersection. Her bike ended up under the truck.
Ring camera video from a neighbor’s house, reviewed by Madison365, shows that Myron did not slow down or stop at the stop sign.
Police say Myron was outside the truck, standing with the aid of a walker when they arrived. He was “adamant” that he had stopped, according to a court document filed by Gruenke.
Myron was issued a traffic citation, which has since been voided pending the decision as to whether or not to file charges.
Terrance Thompson said he and wife Ann Thompson have been frustrated by the lack of charges, and lack of communication from prosecutors.
“They started giving us a runaround … We shouldn’t have to call down just to get an update about our daughter. They should be calling us,” he said.
The inquest
Gruenke told Madison365 in June that he was waiting for additional information from investigators before determining whether to file charges. In July, he submitted an order for a homicide inquest, writing in a court filing, “After reviewing the police reports, video, and witness statements, there is reason to believe that the death may have resulted from the negligent operation of a motor vehicle.”
While Wisconsin courts typically don’t employ grand juries to secure indictments the way some states and the federal courts do, state law allows for an “inquest,” during which prosecutors present the evidence they would present at trial, including witness testimony, to a panel of six citizens chosen by a judge. The panel then advises whether they believe probable cause exists to file charges and proceed to trial. The district attorney can then take their advice or not.
Gruenke said the process is useful in cases where terms in the law might be subject to interpretation.
“There are some charges that kind of lend themselves to this, like anything involving the word ‘negligence,’” Gruenke said in an interview. “In this case, I think the issue revolves around whether or not it’s considered criminally negligent versus ordinary negligence. It’s a legal determination that a jury would make to say whether or not this conduct was negligent to a high degree, and that means kind of whatever a person might want it to mean. So I’m putting it to an advisory jury of our community to (ask), ‘What would an average person in our community, an average juror, think about this?’ Because I can see people differing on terms like ‘substantial negligence,’ ‘high degree,’ just like ‘reasonable doubt,’ … you know, some words are hard to define.”
Gruenke said the standard to show probable cause is much lower than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard required for a conviction, so the inquest may or may not see all of the evidence or hear from every witness that would be presented at trial.
“If they say, ‘we don’t think there’s probable cause,’ we still could (prosecute), because again, they don’t maybe see everything. But we would say to ourselves, ‘we may have a hard time proving this case beyond a reasonable doubt,’” he said.
Myron himself could testify at the inquest, but would retain the right to assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
The inquest is scheduled for Monday, July 27.
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Robert Chappellrchappell@madison365.org6083347829
