KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Hardin Valley couple seeks damages after they say a "disheveled" former UT police commander confronted them at gunpoint last year, mistakenly thinking they were intruders in the house he'd just bought.
Ryan and Valerie Slowik filed the lawsuit against Keith Lambert and his wife Shelli last month in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. They want unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
They allege Lambert, then the assistant police chief at University of Tennessee Police Department, trespassed and is guilty of official misconduct, among other offenses. They allege Shelli Lambert used her position as a captain with the Knox County Sheriff's Office to try to hide what had happened on the afternoon of July 24, 2019.
When the incident occurred last summer the Lamberts had just bought the home next to the Slowiks. It's a relatively new subdivision. The Slowiks had just moved in themselves, records show.
Lambert pulled up to the Slowik home in his unmarked UTPD vehicle. He pulled out his pistol, according to the lawsuit. When Mrs. Slowik and their 10-year-old daughter emerged from the house into the garage, the lawsuit states, Lambert began yelling, cursing, demanding to know who they were and informing them he was a cop.
Then Ryan Slowik and their 11-year-old son, who was in a foot cast, came out to the garage.
The family felt fear, trauma and uncertainty not knowing if Lambert was going to shoot them, they allege. The daughter screamed and collapsed, which appeared to get Lambert's attention.
He asked to speak to Ryan Slowik alone but Slowik declined. Lambert then got in the car and drove it to the house next door - his actual house.
"Keith Lambert was unknown to the Slowiks and appeared to them to be off, irrational, impaired, intoxicated, crazy, psychotic, manic, angry and out of his mind," the lawsuit states.
The Slowiks called the Sheriff's Office.
They allege Shelli Lambert tried to hide her husband from the consequences of what happened. By hiding, he had time to dry out, they allege.
They allege the Lamberts, considering their professions, were obliged but failed to report what had happened.
The Knox County Sheriff's Office began investigating. Knox County prosecutors, however, ultimately decided against seeking a charge against Lambert.
Lambert soon resigned from UTPD, an option the Slowiks say they object to.
The Lamberts sold their house soon after.
The Slowiks' lawsuit was filed by attorney Gregory Brown.