BETHEL – Former Police Chief Darren Tripp has filed an amendment to a lawsuit filed in federal court last year asking for $500,000 in damages related to the termination of his job.

The notice of claim was presented to Bethel Town Manager Scott Cole on Wednesday and names both Cole and the town as defendants.

In the most recent claim, the original suit asking for a $250,000 has been doubled to $500,000 for emotional distress, alleged damage to Tripp’s reputation, loss of wages and attorney fees.

Tripp’s attorney, Tom Carey of Rumford, said the supplementary claim was made to the original lawsuit because Tripp has been fired since the federal suit was filed. The suit, which was filed a year ago in U.S. District Court, challenged Tripp’s 33-day paid suspension in March 2003 for alleged “serious” job deficiencies, poor judgment, lack of ethics and lack of respect for the law.

Depositions in the federal case are ongoing, with several conducted recently with selectmen, Cole, Tripp, the town’s animal control officer and a former Bethel police officer, said Carey and Cole. Additional depositions are scheduled for June, added Cole.

Cole said he has referred the notice of claim to the town’s insurer, the Maine Municipal Association Risk Pool, and to lawyer Anne Carney of the Portland firm of Norman Hanson and DeTroy.

Tripp also filed a suit in state Superior Court last month seeking to nullify a decision by selectmen who upheld his firing by Cole with a 3-2 vote on March 11.

Tripp was fired for allegedly failing to maintain contact with the Oxford County Regional Communications Center and failing to respond from the police station for 12 minutes last December to repeated attempts to alert him to an armed robbery.

He joined the Bethel Police Department in 1989, then became chief in 1998.

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