Police Officer Granted Hearing For Suspension

A Dubuque police officer has requested an appeals hearing regarding the decision to suspend him for four days after an investigation found that while responding to a call, he failed to discover an individual who had died of a drug overdose. The City of Dubuque’s Civil Service Commission voted to grant Officer Ethan Lembke’s request to postpone his appeal hearing and asked the city attorney to propose dates to be considered at its Wednesday, May 10th meeting. The board of the Dubuque Police Protective Association — the bargaining unit for Dubuque police officers — found Lembke’s four-day, or 40-hour, suspension without pay to be “excessive,” prompting Lembke’s request for an appeals hearing. Lembke was dispatched to a parking lot next to Lot One after 10:30 p.m. on August 6th for a report of loud music coming from a vehicle where a person was “slumped over.”  Lembke stated that he walked up on the passenger side near the rear pillar and didn’t see anyone in the driver’s seat. It was determined that the person died from an accidental fentanyl overdose.