High profile cop sues Albuquerque for promotion and back damages

An Albuquerque police officer, infamous for a high-profile police shooting, is now suing the city.

The police officer is suing for a year of back pay and for a promotion to sergeant, claiming he passed all tests and certifications to be promoted. He claims it is against the police departments rules to not promote someone with the qualifications and experience required to be promoted.

The plaintiff alleged the city’s failure to rightfully promote him has caused economic damages which he is “due and eligible to obtain.” He claims he should be awarded back pay and associated benefits dating to October 2014, when an officer was promoted ahead of him.

In 2013, Lampiris-Tremba cost the city $8 million in a judgement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Ellis family regarding Lampiris-Tremba having shot and killed Kenneth Ellis III in a 7-11 parking lot in 2010. Ellis was holding a gun to his own head, not posing a threat to anyone but himself, and Lampiris-Tremba shot him in the neck.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, investigated the shooting and found that Ellis did not point the gun at the police or threaten them, and that it was therefore unreasonable for Lampiris-Tremba to have used deadly force. The family of the man Lampiris-Tremba killed says that he should have been fired long ago.

Relevant reading:

Read the Lampiris-Tremba v. City of Albuquerque complaint for declaratory judgment here.

Read additional case studies of employment suits involving discrimination in hiring, pay, promotion and termination.

Lawsuits in Albuquerque have cost city $23 million since 2010, from the Albuquerque Journal.