Fathers of Slain Universal Studios Guards Sue Police Departments

The fathers of two Universal Studios guards, who were killed by a man also accused of slaying three people at an Albuquerque bagel shop, have filed suit against the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and the Albuquerque Police Department.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in New Mexico state district court last week on behalf of Esperio Torres and John Beeks, the fathers of studio guards Armando Torres and Jeren Beeks. The guards were shot to death by Nathan Trupp while New Mexico officials were looking for Trupp in connection with the bagel shop killings.

The lawsuit contends Albuquerque police, the Public Safety Department and their officers failed to share information in a timely fashion, and that doing so would have led to Trupp’s arrest before he left Albuquerque. It also said Albuquerque police failed to notify other agencies, including the FBI, of Trupp’s escape from Albuquerque.

The guards’ fathers asked unspecified damages for pain and trauma suffered by their sons, as well as compensation for economic loss, medical and funeral expenses and the loss of their sons’ lives.

Defendants named in the lawsuit are the state and city law enforcement agencies; Robert VanderHee, an agent with the state department’s Special Investigation Division in Albuquerque; Albuquerque Police Sgt. Ruth Lowe and former Albuquerque police chief Sam Baca.

Trupp, 43, in May was found innocent of murder by reason of insanity and committed to a California hospital for the mentally disordered. Authorities said Trupp told them he went to Universal Studios because he wanted to kill actor Michael Landon, and that God told him to kill the security guards.

Albuquerque City Atty. David Campbell said his office would vigorously defend the Police Department, Lowe and Baca.

“To say that we are responsible for any subsequent acts of a criminal if we do not stop that criminal before he flees the jurisdiction has never been the law, and would be a devastating precedent for law enforcement,” Campbell said.

Bob Gardenhire, chief counsel for the Department of Public Safety, said the office is reviewing the complaint.

“We deny wrongdoing and we will adamantly defend our actions,” he said.

Trupp was accused of gunning down bagel shop operators Jeanne Wilt, 37; her husband, Richard Wilt, 39; and father, Joseph Famiglietta Sr., 63, on Nov. 29, 1988, and fleeing on foot.

The lawsuit said that on the afternoon of the killings, VanderHee received a phone call from the owner of an Albuquerque gun shop. The suit said the caller told VanderHee that a man matching the killer’s description had purchased a .38-caliber handgun the day before, and gave VanderHee Trupp’s name and address.

VanderHee called Albuquerque police with the information, but was unable to reach Lowe or Sgt. Desi Garcia, according to the lawsuit. He left messages for both officers and then went home, the lawsuit said. Albuquerque police officers did not get the information until the next day.