N.M. Officer Can't Return to Albuquerque Post

A state District Court judge has denied former Albuquerque police officer Orlando Camacho's bid to get his job back.

In late December, a District Court jury found that the city and Police Chief Ray Schultz violated Camacho's due process rights when he was fired in February 2007, seven months before being criminally charged with the death of his stepfather. The jury also awarded modest damages of $6,000.

George Bach, Camacho's defense attorney argued in a hearing last week that the damages only went part-way in making the former officer whole. Judge Nan Nash, Bach said, could either order Camacho reinstated or awarded future damages.

Deputy City Attorney Kathryn Levy countered, saying the jury could have awarded future damages and chose not to. A ruling in Camacho's favor, Levy argued, would amount to "parallel litigation."

In an order dated Tuesday, Nash sided with Levy and denied both reinstatement and future damages.

The judge wrote that the only way to interpret the jury's verdict is that Schultz and APD "rushed to judgment in terminating Camacho and in doing so violated his civil rights."

However, by awarding him less than one-third of the pay he sought, "the jury determined that termination was appropriate sometime between when Camacho was terminated and when he was indicted. Ergo, the jury found APD's termination of Camacho was appropriate at some point."

Bach said Tuesday that Camacho hasn't yet decided whether to appeal the reinstatement. He said the former officer still feels "vindicated" by the jury's award and its decision regarding his civil rights.

Schultz said Tuesday that the department plans to change the language in its policy regarding when an officer charged with certain crimes can be terminated. The proposed policy will make more clear when APD has to wait for an indictment to fire an officer.

"When we get to a point where we believe sufficient investigation has been done, we will initiate discipline," he said. "But we will not compromise criminal investigations by doing so."