On or about July 23, the bishop of the Gallup
Diocese, the Most Rev. Donald E. Pelotte, fell down eight or nine
carpeted stairs at his Gallup home, sustaining massive injuries
that are expected to keep him in the hospital for weeks or months.
At least that is what some in the diocese,
including the Rev. James Walker, want the people here to believe.
Walker, the vicar general of the Gallup Diocese,
soon after taking over Pelottes administrative duties, decided
that the best course of action was to present his version to the
public and to members of the faith and go along with the bishops
version of what happened at his home, despite the evidence that
indicates Pelotte was seriously assaulted.
I fell down the stairs, says Pelotte
from his hospital bed, and the diocese is going along with this
despite the many questions that have come up since Pelottes
injuries were made public.
According to police and diocese statements,
that night Pelotte suffered massive wounds to almost every part
of his body. This includes heavy bruising across his face, arms,
knuckles, elbows, legs and his feet. The police report also stated
that his right eye was swollen shut. And the official version
from the diocese is that Pelotte fell and sustained these wounds
during the fall down eight or nine carpeted stairs.
There were no signs of a struggle,
Walker said in a statement released on Tuesday. The first chancery
official at the scene, Deacon Timothy Lujan, who went to the house
said that it looked like the bishop had been beaten up, but Walker
has chosen to ignore that, just like Catholic officials ignored
reports of child sexual abuse within the Gallup Diocese in the
past.
There were no signs of another person in the
house, he adds. The fact that Pelotte was discovered with bruises
all over his body and blood along the stairway would probably
lead some to believe that there was someone else in the house
at the time.
So how did this happen? Did Pelotte have a fight
with the stairs as he was tumbling? Did the stairs have a nice
left hook that resulted in a shot to his right eye?
Everything that has been made public seems to
indicate that Pelotte was involved in a violent fight that night.
With whom, and why, should be questions that not only officials
of the diocese should be asking, but police as well.
But despite the official police report listing
the incident as an assault, and the ER doctors at the hospital
calling police when they classified the bishops injuries
as caused by an assault, the city police, now under the leadership
of acting Police Chief Robert Cron, has decided to sweep it under
Walkers carpet and accept Pelottes word that it was
just a trivial accident because of a stated policy that they dont
investigate these kinds of incidents if the victim claims it is
an accident.
Cron should know better from his years with
the New Mexico State Police and coming across witnesses who, for
one reason or another, dont want the truth to be revealed.
But its obvious that a crime has been committed, and its
the sworn duty of the police to investigate and, if a crime has
been committed, to bring the person responsible to justice.
Its obvious the police department wants
to drop the ball on this.
First, they decided to take Pelottes initial
statement at face value, despite the fact that he had severe head
injuries which brings into question his ability to accurately
recall what happened. Shortly after Pelotte was discovered, the
chancellor of the diocese offered to allow police to inspect Pelottes
home, which would have probably resolved the question of what
happened that night and prevented the questions and rumors that
have since sprung up. The police, however, turned the offer down.
Pelotte is a public figure who, in the past
several years, has had at least one public death threat. He is
also the local head of a religion that has followed a path of
secrecy and lies when it comes to the personal lives of its priests
and leaders. Despite this, both the diocese and the police have
decided that the facts surrounding this case dont warrant
any further action.
The fact that there has been a documented death
threat alone should have sparked some police interest in this
case and concern that the victim may be lying because hes
afraid of further injury if he tells police what actually happened.
This web of lies and false truths is not good
for us, and Walker and others need to come forward and answer
the questions that this community has about what happened, even
if it proves embarrassing to Pelotte and the Church. We have a
deep respect for what Pelotte has been able to accomplish here
in Gallup but the events surrounding his injuries demand that
everyone involved in this be forthcoming. The truth needs to be
told.
We are calling upon officials in the diocese
to demand a police investigation and we are calling upon the police
to take the investigation seriously, regardless of what the diocese
wishes. The days when the Church can sweep something like this
under the carpet and hope it will just go away are gone, just
like the billions of dollars the Church has spent in recent years
to settle accusations of child molestation by priests. The Church
can no longer spoon feed the news media with its version of false
truth. But apparently the Church believes it can still spoon-feed
the Gallup Police Department and they will just go along.
Justice has to be done and the person responsible
for the assault on Pelotte needs to be punished. The leaders of
the Church need to stop lying and covering up and be honest with
us.