Connect-Bridgeport's 2017 Top Feature Stories: #1
By Julie Perine on January 06, 2018 via Connect-Bridgeport.com
Editor's Note: As a little girl, Carrington Riggs experienced every parent's worse nightmare: She was assaulted in her own bedroom in the middle of the night. One of Bridgeport's own, Riggs has gown into an intelligent, independent woman who has chosen to work in a law enforcement field, working to help prevent the kind of frightful experience she and her family experienced. This story not only brought several thousand readers to the Connect-Bridgeport Web site, but brought out vocal support for Riggs and her family. This story - chosen Connect-Bridgeport's No. 1 feature story for 2017 - originally ran Jan. 8, 2017:
"Assaulted as Little Girl, Carrington Riggs on Mission to Become Prosecuting Attorney to Help Other Victims"
While on winter break from West Virginia University, Carrington Riggs has spent time interning at the Harrison County Prosecutor’s Office where she is learning from Prosecuting Attorney Rachel Romano and staff the process of bringing misdemeanor and felony crimes to justice.
The WVU senior and Bridgeport High School graduate has also spent time this holiday season reminiscing about an incident that happened 12 years ago in her family home – an incident which was a turning point for her emotionally and with regard to career choice.
Carrington plans to become a prosecuting attorney because she wants to help those who go through an ordeal such as the one she and her family experienced. She was just 10 years old when, at 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2004, she was assaulted in her own bed; her assailant then fleeing through her bedroom window.
“I remember waking up and seeing someone standing over me and the next thing I remember is my parents coming in and then he fled,” Carrington said. “My dad called 911 and within two minutes, police were at our house. They then found out that I had been physically assaulted. I remember the police officers asking me questions.”
After taking an estimated nine blows to her forehead, 10-year-old Carrington was able to not only scream and summon for help at the time of the attack, but also describe in detail what her attacker looked like.
Harrison County Sheriff Robert Matheny, who then was part of the Clarksburg Police Force, said that description played a major role in locating the assailant. She said the man had a big, squishy nose – like a cartoon character - was wearing a blue jean jacket with a fur collar, jeans, black tennis shoes – and a white Pittsburgh Steelers toboggan with an NFL logo on the back.
Matheny is one of the officers who apprehended 27-year-old Charles Pearcy in the early hours of Dec. 31, 2004, at his parents’ home on Bridgeport’s Kinney Street, in close proximity to the Riggs’ house on Meadow Lane.
The suspect was arrested about an hour after the attack, thanks, in part, to a task force which – for an unrelated reason - was in the immediate area at the time the 911 call was placed.
“We had had a rash of breaking and entering cases in Clarksburg, Bridgeport and throughout the county, so the police chiefs had put together a task force with city law enforcement, state troopers and FBI agents,” Matheny said.
The m.o. of the ‘Ninja Bandit,’ Matheny said, was breaking into the first floor of occupied homes and stealing various items.
“That’s why they were considered more violent crimes than the breaking in of an unoccupied home,” he said. “That’s why the task force had been out and on high alert.”
The task force was disbanding for the evening when Carrington’s dad Dan Riggs made the 911 call. Matheny and Rick Miller, who was then with the Stonewood Police Force, were seconds away from the Riggs’ home. Almost immediately after the 911 call was placed, they pulled into the Riggs’ driveway not knowing the situation.
“We went into it blind. There was a lot of screaming and a lot of chaos,” Matheny said, adding that everyone was able to settle down quickly and fill him and Officer Miller in on what had just taken place. A county-wide plan was already in place for the breaking and entering instances, so law enforcement decided to put that plan into action to find Carrington’s attacker.
“We were to try to set up a parameter and try to get the perpetrator within that parameter,” Matheny said. “It was a loose plan and we followed that plan to a T that night.”
It was a plan which included Bridgeport’s K-9 unit, then under the direction of Randy Watkins, as well as a vast collection of city, county, state and FBI law enforcers.
“Mike Lemley showed up. He was the lead investigator and everything fell into place,” Matheny said. “The K-9 unit showed up on the scene within minutes and was able to track (Pearcy) right to the house.”
After Carrington shared the description with Officer Rick Miller, details were blasted out over the police scanner.
“Once the information went out, Clarksburg Police Officer John Sedlock said he had made a traffic stop on a guy meeting that same description,” Matheny said.
His name and address – as well as the make and model of his vehicle - were readily available. His gold Ford Focus was found in the dead-end street behind the Riggs’ house. Utilizing the physical address, police were led to the exact location to where the suspect fled and where the police dog tracked him. Items of clothing matching the young victim’s description were in plain sight and Pearcy’s knuckles were freshly red from the attack.
Carrington was later paid a visit by Bridgeport Paramedic Scott Wilburn who provided medical attention. The next morning, the family followed up with a visit to her pediatrician after which they went to Bridgeport Police Department, where the little girl identified her perpetrator in a lineup.
But what she remembers most about that day and the days that followed were the immense amount of support her family received – from family, friends, law enforcement and a caring community. A family friend and clergyman John Board provided her with counseling services. The Boards were among countless area families who provided tremendous support.
Pearcy was released on bond shortly after his arrest and resided with his parents in the Riggs’ neighborhood until his September 2005 trial.
On her 11th birthday, Carrington took the stand in a court of law, pointed to Pearcy and told the judge he was the man who broke into her house nine months earlier. He was convicted of attempted abduction with attempt to defile and subsequently sentenced to 12 years in prison.
“She grew up really quick that year,” Dan Riggs said.
For several weeks, she had black eyes and bruises from the assault, but the lasting scars from the incident weren’t so visible.
“We were all afraid. I think our entire family slept in the living room for three or four months,” she said.
The Riggs family joined forces with John and Terry Walker and others to form West Virginia Child Abduction Prevention Program "WVCAPP" as an outreach to assist other families. The family’s advocacy for abduction and assault victims was an ongoing part of their lives. The CAPPS group, spearheaded by Carrington’s mother Michelle, hosted various events and brought in speakers, including Ed Smart, father of nationally-known kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart. He hosted a forum on child abduction in May of 2006.
“I was able to talk to him about Elizabeth’s experience and even though her experience was so much more than mine, it was really nice to talk to him,” Carrington said.
Carrington and Michelle met with (then) West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin to discuss laws which would better protect children. Michelle also served as a spokesperson and advocate for AmberView, a database which stored photos and physical descriptions of hundreds of thousands of West Virginia school students, providing a useful tool in the event of an abduction.
Throughout the years during which Pearcy has been incarcerated, the Riggs family attended various parole hearings, coming in direct contact with Carrington’s attacker.
Once at WVU, Carrington became involved with the campus Research Center on Violence, as well as a Peer Advocates service organization. Part of the program was a class which she encouraged all students to take to be better informed.
“Through Peer Advocates, we did a lot of different events. It coincided with (former U.S. Vice President) Joe Biden’s campaign, who started White House initiatives,” Carrington said. “We also did a bunch of Title IX Office survivor walks and hosted different booths throughout the year so people would know what was going on and how to get involved.”
Carrington was also active in the publication of a newsletter helped to educate university students about violence and victims’ rights.
She started her education at WVU as a political science major, funded, in part, by her receipt of the Hotsinpiller Memorial Scholarship, provided annually in memory of former Bridgeport Police Lt. Jim Hotsinpiller and his son, Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller, who died in the line of duty.
She thereafter switched majors, enrolling in a five-year secondary education master’s program. After finishing this spring, she plans to pursue law school – likely at WVU. In addition to the internship at the Harrison County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, she is currently student teaching. After completing two semesters at South Harrison High School, she will be placed at Fairmont East High School next semester. Though she plans to someday teach, her immediate career goal is to become a prosecutor.
“I want to be able to help and I think that would have the biggest impact,” she said.
Carrington’s parents are quite proud of her and the decisions she has made. They also relive and rethink that December 2004 night. Dan Riggs’ memory is quite vivid, as are the days leading up to it.
“It had been a long week,” he said. “On Christmas Eve, we were at my grandmother’s funeral in Norristown, Pa. On the drive home, Carrington got the stomach flu and then I got it and Michelle got it. We knew our son Chase (then 5 years old) was going to get it. We just didn’t know when.”
When the couple heard the ruckus inside their house during the wee hours of Dec. 31, they assumed their son was sick. Upon entering his room, they found nothing, but heard Carrington’s cry for help. By the time they got to her bedroom, Pearcy had escaped through the window and Michelle followed, Dan Riggs said.
He immediately reached for the phone to make the 911 call and was comforted by a familiar voice on the other end of the line. It was his friend, 911 Operator Paul Rasmussen.
“It was then that I saw Carrington come down the hall and saw her in the light for the first time and realized he had beat her,” Riggs said.
In that instant, he said, he wanted to take matters in his own hands.
“But you just can’t do that,” he said.
Riggs said the law enforcement that surrounded his home within minutes of his call did a remarkable job. The scene played out like the script of a Hollywood movie, he said. He feels very fortunate that area law enforcement was at the right place at the right time.
“I respect officers so much. They have seconds to make decisions and then defense attorneys have years to beat it up,” he said.
Matheny said, indeed, time is of the essence with regard to decisions relating to constitutional matters, search and seizure and a number of other matters.
“You make those quick decisions in a matter of minutes, then the courts and lawyers have days, months, even years to decide if we did the right thing,” he said.
Matheny said the real hero in the Dec. 31, 2004 incident was Carrington.
“She woke up and thank God she was able to get out a scream and the family was able to fend off the attacker before we got there,” he said.
Dan Riggs said he believes someone else played a major role in keeping his daughter from being abducted.
“Before all of this happened, Carrington – who was in the fourth grade at the time – wrote an essay for school about what she wanted for
Christmas,” he said. “She said in the essay that all she wanted was for her Great Grandmother Lena to be around. Then she passed away on Christmas Eve. After the funeral, my aunts and uncles were reading that essay and they gave Carrington my grandmother’s wedding ring. She was wearing it the night the guy broke in. I think my Grandma Lena Romano protected Carrington.”
Following Carrington’s assault, people seemed leery of talking about the incident with the family.
“I wanted to talk about it,” Riggs said.
Once friends and neighbors opened a discussion, they found they had experienced similarities – potential signs that someone had been hanging around their homes – even intruding. For instance, Riggs said, he had found the gate in his yard opened on various occasions.
“I blamed the kids. I blamed the dog and the wind,” he said.
But apparently, that gate had been opened on purpose.
Other neighbors discovered cigarette butts by their skylights; stacked lawn furniture that led to windows of their homes. Those signs and any others than something is out of the ordinary should always be reported, Matheny said.
“It may or may not mean anything, but we as law enforcement take that seriously and put it in shift notes, passing it on,” he said. “When you start seeing a bunch of little things going on in one area, there may be a problem and in that case, we would increase patrols.”
The Riggs family and several others invested in home security systems in early 2005. That physically helped to protect the families. But Riggs feels it’s just as important to protect other families by keeping their story alive.
“You think about a child somewhere in a town that maybe wasn’t so fortunate,” Riggs said. “That family may not get the support that we had here in Bridgeport.”
Riggs also encourages residents to regularly check the sex offender registry and be aware of offenders who may be moving into the area.
After serving 12 years, Pearcy is due to be released later this year.
Dan Riggs is owner and operator of Dan Riggs Towing. Michelle Riggs is a teacher at Notre Dame High School. The couple has a long list of individuals they continue to thank for coming to their family’s aid that night:
Officers Robert G. Matheny, Dustin Hotsinpiller, Walter Scott Williams, John Walker, Mike Lemley, Randy Hartley, Gary Weaver, Rick Miller, John Sedlock, Randy Watkins, Steve Seckman, Robert Goodrich, Ben Collins, Rob Waybright and Scott Lattea, who responded that night; 911 operator Paul Rasmussen, Harrison County Prosecutor Joe Shaffer and staff members Tracey Cook and Brook Fitzgerald, Attorney April Conner, Victims’ Advocate John Joe Madia and friends John Board, Brenna Board, Lisa and Andy Lang and Michael Queen.
“I know that without all these wonderful people, our situation could have turned out a lot differently,” Dan Riggs said. “I will never be able to thank them enough for all they did for my family.”
Editor's Note: Pictured from top: Carrington Riggs is now a student at West Virginia University and plans to further her higher education by attending law school; Carrington at about age 10; the age at which she was assaulted in her Bridgeport home; Former Clarksburg Police Officer and current Harrison County Sheriff Robert Matheny; Dan Riggs with children Carrington and Chase; Michelle Riggs being recognized for her advocacy work by Robert Mueller, former national director of the FBI.
