Jury Awards $735K to Former Official at New Mexico Lab

A former Los Alamos National Laboratory official pushed out of his job amid controversy over his service on an electric co-op’s board has won a jury verdict against the lab’s former management company.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that jurors awarded approximately $735,000 to John J. Tapia in his 2016 breach of contract suit against Los Alamos National Security LLC over his forced resignation.

Lab officials contended Tapia improperly used his work computer to do work for the Jemez Mountains Electric Co-op on company time and directed a subordinate to do the same.

Tapia attorney Aaron Wolf said lab officials pushed out Tapia because they feared that the management company’s chances of retaining a federal contract would be hurt by fraud allegations involving the co-op board.