Rusty Sabich Takes Over the Investigation of Carolyn's Murder

Rusty Sabich’s role in the investigation of Carolyn Polhemus’s murder began as a joint decision with Raymond Horgan, not as an assignment imposed by Horgan alone. Recounted during Horgan’s testimony at Rusty’s trial, the appointment became part of a larger dispute over how Rusty had carried out the work and how much latitude Horgan had given him.

The Assignment

Horgan described a practice in the prosecutor’s office of assigning a deputy prosecutor to guide and assist the police in a major case. He characterized Polhemus’s murder as a very major case and testified that he and Rusty decided Rusty should take that role. The account placed Rusty within the ordinary prosecutorial structure for overseeing a serious investigation while making clear that the choice had been mutual.

Oversight and Delay

The assignment carried responsibility for guiding the police inquiry, but Horgan’s testimony also raised questions about Rusty’s attention to its progress. Horgan said he had complained about Rusty’s handling of the case, including having to press him to speed up the fingerprint and fiber reports. In the trial narrative, this criticism casts the pace of the investigation as a point of friction: the deputy assigned to assist the police was later accused by his own supervisor of dragging his feet on evidence.

Trust Reconsidered at Trial

Horgan’s account did not present the relationship as one of constant supervision. Under questioning by Sandy Stern, he acknowledged that he had given people who worked for him some leeway and that Rusty knew Horgan had trusted his judgment on substantial matters in the past. That history complicated the significance of the reported delays: Rusty had been entrusted with discretion, while Horgan later testified to having had to urge him to act more quickly. The assignment thus returned at trial as both a procedural fact and a measure of the professional trust whose meaning had become contested.