JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A history of accusations including fraud, domestic violence, three separate reports of sexual assault did not stop the rise of one Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Lieutenant through the ranks.
A two-month investigation into now-fired Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Lt. Renaldo Lampkins shows he was hired despite a failed background check, and continued working for nearly two decades, even as he was dogged by more troubling allegations.
RELATED: Jacksonville firefighter lieutenant fired after accusations of unlawful sexual acts with minor
He is currently facing a felony charge of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, to which he has pleaded not guilty. However, the most serious charge against him could be dropped. It is something his accusers refuse to accept.
The accuser met him on a rescue call.
In April 2016, Jacksonville Firefighter Renaldo Lampkins was responding to a medical emergency involving one of her family members.
“He seemed like a good guy,” said the woman, whom we are not identifying due to the nature of her allegations. “He’s well dressed, he smells good, he has good job. He’s a firefighter. You would never think that this would be that guy.”
The two began dating the following year. Though it was not an exclusive relationship, it was an intimate one. According to police reports and the woman’s request for a permanent order of protection, which was granted, in March 2019, the two were in Lampkins’ bed, when she suddenly realized a third person was with them.
“Oh, my God, like, I began to freak out," the woman recalled. "I tried to sit up so I could see what was happening. But Renaldo applied pressure to my body. So I, literally, I was stuck in the position that I was in. So I just began to kick, and scream. And I even though I couldn't see the person, I started, yelling to get them to leave.”
The second man left, she later told police, but Lampkins held her down.
“He basically told me, 'You're not going anywhere. You're gonna lay here, you're going to take this.' And that's what he did,” the woman recalled.
Lampkins denied her allegations, as did the other man in his apartment that night. He was not arrested, and the State Attorney’s Office declined to file charges citing “the improbability of conviction.”
“I had not gone to the hospital, there was no evidence, it was my word against theirs, essentially,” the woman said.
However, she started doing her own digging into Lampkins' background and found a lot that surprised her.
“I wasn’t the first one," she said. "In my own investigation, I uncovered that he was a suspect in a forcible rape in 1995.”
According to the 1995 report, a neighbor set the woman up with Lampkins, then a football player for Southeast Missouri State University. She told police that he came over one night when her roommate wasn’t home. She said he quickly steered the conversation to sex and began touching her legs. When she asked him to stop, the report says, Lampkins told her he knew she was going through a divorce and “needed sex.” She told police he pushed her to the floor, held her down and raped her.
The woman reported the incident to police and submitted to an exam. Doctors found her physical condition “consistent” with her allegations. However, no charges were filed in 1995 due to “an improbability of conviction.”
The 1995 report might be part of the reason JFRD initially rejected Lampkins’ job application. Lampkins had also had three previous accusations of domestic violence, filed with JSO by two different women.
Whatever the reasons, in 2002, JFRD formally rejected his application saying he had failed a background check.
"You do not meet the standards established by the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department," the letter said.
“So how did this man get hired?,” the woman in the 2019 allegation asked. “I just cannot believe that he that he had this job.”
JFRD declined to comment and referred all questions to Mayoral Spokesperson Nikki Kimbleton. In an email she said, “Lampkins was hired in February 2003 and no one in the current JFRD administration was involved in that process, therefore we have no one who can accurately speak to that decision.”
Ray Alfred, who was Fire Chief at the time, told First Coast News he did not remember hiring Lampkins. He said based on his record, “he would not have qualified” for a job. Although JFRD rejected Lampkins the first two times he applied, Alfred eventually reversed those rejections and hired him.
Court records show Lampkins faced a worthless check charge in 2008. And in 2018, he was investigated by the state funeral board for his side job as a funeral director. The board fined him $4,000 and suspended his license for defrauding Florida’s crime victim trust fund of $10,000.
Lampkins was placed on desk duty following the 2019 rape allegation but was restored to duty after the state decided not to press charges. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant. JFRD declined to comment on the promotion.
In an email, Kimbleton wrote, “There were allegations, but no formal charges at that time. In addition, promotions are made through a testing program and then based on scores/results. We do check for disciplinary matters before going through with the promotion, and at the time Lampkins was promoted, there were no formal charges against him.”
“I was frustrated about this,” said the alleged 2019 victim. “And then to then learn, in April that this time, you know, you're targeting children. I just feel like that's diabolical.”
In April 2020, a woman with a decade-long relationship, and a child, with Lampkins called police. Her teenage daughter said he had pressured her to have sex with him. According to the police report, he offered to buy her a vibrator and forced her to touch his penis.
“I felt like I couldn't say anything because he was he was just sitting at the table,” the girl told First Coast News.
Even though she’d known Lampkins for years, the girl’s mother also started digging into his background and tracked down the woman from 2019.
“I was shocked,” the mother said. “I mean, he has been in and out of my life for 10 years. And I would have never expected that he would be somebody who would do something like that.”
Since Lampkins’ 2020 arrest, a new complaint was filed against him by a girlfriend who said he failed to repay a $600 loan. When Lampkins did not show up for a scheduled hearing earlier this month, a default judgment was entered against him.
Lampkins declined multiple requests for comment. Due to COVID-19 court delays, he hasn’t been formally arraigned, but his attorney Hank Coxe entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
“Mr. Lampkins has consistently denied any wrongdoing with respect to these allegations, and we both agree it is not an issue for local news,” Coxe emailed First Coast News after his firing.
The teen’s mother says both she and her daughter are committed to doing whatever it takes to move the case to trial. “If we stay silent, then that person will continue to do it,” she said. “We just hope that he's, he's charged that he has to pay,” she said.
She’s worried, however, that the state plans to drop the most serious charge because of legal complexities. At 16, the girl is too old to be protected by lewd molestation laws for minors, and the physical contact she alleged doesn’t meet the definition of statutory rape. The State Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the case.
Following his firing, the teen's mother described herself as “elated.”
“I am very thankful that someone is listening. And, you know, maybe we're a step closer to achieving justice for my daughter,” the mother said.
All three women say JFRD failed them by ignoring so many red flags.
“I just can’t believe they wouldn’t look at all of that and say, this person should not be given access to people’s homes, and to people in crisis,” the teen’s mother said.
Kimbleton said the department has implemented changes designed to forestall bad hires.
“Within the last two years, JFRD incorporated psychological testing into the screening process to further ensure we are hiring the best personnel,” she said in an email. “This compliments the FDLE background check, medical exam, LEIE check, and driver license check performed on all prospective employees.”
The alleged victim from 2019 says the department also needs to review existing hires facing serious allegations.
“That is a position of honor and trust,” she said. “The department really needs to make sure that the people who represent the city deserve to wear that uniform.”