Pelotte photo case:
Stalling or settling?

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The civil lawsuit concerning the release of Gallup Police photographs of former Bishop Donald E. Pelotte continues to lurch along in stop-and-go fashion.

Attorneys for Albuquerque television news reporter Larry Barker had requested a change of venue, and a hearing on that motion had been set for Thursday, June 19. On Wednesday, however, Barker’s attorneys, Martin R. Esquivel and Denise M. Chanez, faxed a motion to vacate and reset the hearing. District Judge Grant L. Foutz then granted the motion to vacate.

According to Barker’s original motion for a change in venue, Barker and his attorneys were requesting the case be moved out of the 11th Judicial District because of the role former Gallup City Attorney George Kozeliski has played in the lawsuit. Kozeliski filed the lawsuit, which names Barker, Pelotte, and the Diocese of Gallup as defendants, and then he soon stepped down to become a staff attorney for Foutz and the other judges of the 11th Judicial District. At issue in the case is whether the city of Gallup is legally required to release the police photographs of Pelotte under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

According to Esquivel and Chanez’s motion this week, “The parties are engaged in on-going settlement discussions and hope to resolve this lawsuit in the near future.” They state that neither attorneys for the city of Gallup or the Gallup Diocese object to the motion to vacate. No mention is made of former Bishop Pelotte, who has yet to hire an attorney to represent his interests in the case.

Although this week’s motion included a request to reset the change of venue hearing, Foutz’s order did not include a new hearing date.