A look back ... ; The Independent's top stories of 2007

The best news photo of the year selected by photographers was taken by Indepenent photographer Daniel Zollinger. Hono Rato holds his daughter Jennifer Rato while waiting to participate in the night parade of the 86th Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial in downtown Gallup N.M. Rato is an Aztec dancer from Veracruz, Mexico and imagines his daughter carrying on the dancing tradition. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

GALLUP — The year 2007 was a busy news year around Gallup, Grants and Indian Country. Gallup got new mayor and a slew of City Hal employees were fired. A young boy's body was found stuffed inside a cooler and it looks like the area will once again host companies hoping to mine uranium, providing jobs, income and doubts in the minds of many people who saw what uranium mining did to the land in past decades. But the story that garnered national attention and left people in Gallup scratching their heads in disbelief was the incident involving the Diocese of Gallup.

This photo by Independent photographer Brian Leddy was selected by photographers as the feature photo of the year. Charlie Williams, a resident of Canton, Ga. working in Gallup, takes a drag off a cigarette at the El Rancho Hotel on Monday evening. As of this past Friday, New Mexico joined neighboring Arizona, Colorado and Utah and 16 other states that have enacted smoking bans in restaurants, bars, indoor workplaces and public places. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

Here are the Independent's top stories of 2007:

1. Bishop Donald Pelotte
GALLUP — On July 23 Roman Catholic Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of the Diocese of Gallup was found severely injured in his Gallup home. Initially treated at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, Pelotte was airlifted to a trauma center in Phoenix and then later transferred to a Houston hospital that specializes in the treatment of patients with traumatic brain injury. After reported out-patient treatment near his Florida home, the bishop caught diocesan officials off-guard with his return to Gallup on Sept. 21 and his confused 911 telephone call on Sept. 27. Police reports concerning the July 23 and Sept. 27 incidents raised public concern about Pelotte’s physical and mental condition, and on Dec. 13 the diocese announced that Pelotte was taking an immediate medical leave for an unspecified length of time and to an undisclosed location. A public records legal battle is now being waged in district court over the photographs Gallup Police took of the bishop in the RMCH emergency room.

2. 4-year-old’s remains found
GALLUP — A 48-year-old Spencer Valley woman accused of killing a 4-year-old boy under her care told authorities she kicked and hit the child and knew he was dead when she stored his body in a portable ice chest.

Evelyne James was charged in U.S. District Court with a single count of murder in October in connection with Alberto Johnny James’ death. The child went by the nickname “Bobo” and was in the care of James and her husband at the time of his death, according to court records. Alberto James’ brother also lived at the residence.

During an interview with FBI agents, James demonstrated how the child “put up his hands in front of his face in a defensive position while stating ‘Don’t. Don’t, Auntie. Don’t,” during the beating that later claimed his life.

“Evelyne knew he was dead. She put him in a cooler, wrapped the cooler in a plastic bag and put the cooler in the black house under a suitcase,” FBI Agent John T. Pittman wrote in an affidavit for arrest.

James’ two grown children reportedly noticed the child was missing and inquired about his whereabouts and James told them he was staying with another aunt.

The relatives soon became concerned about the child when he did not return home and they noticed irregularities in Evelyne James’ behavior.

Authorities suspected Alberto James died on Oct. 4, nearly a week before his discovery.

A preliminary report from the Office of the Medical Investigator revealed the child’s injuries included “multiple lacerations to the scalp with underlying new and old skull fractures, new and old rib fractures and an old hematoma.
James is currently facing murder charges in U.S. District Court for her alleged role in the killing.

3. Red hot uranium
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation is finally getting some much deserved attention on Cold War uranium issues as well as a new look at amending the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Representatives of the Navajo Nation received a bipartisan commitment from members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to address “a modern American tragedy” resulting from decades of uranium mining activities foisted on an uninformed Navajo public by the U.S. government.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., assured the Navajo delegation, “We’re all outraged by what we’ve seen happening.” Waxman held a follow-up meeting earlier this month to listen to a status report from various federal agencies regarding the steps they are taking to clean up the contamination and plans to hold another hearing within six months. In addition, U.S. Reps. Tom Udall, Jim Matheson and Rick Renzi held a Uranium Roundtable in Washington to listen to changes proposed by the Navajo Nation to fix RECA, including allowing the use of affidavits to establish residency, and allowing the combination of work history between miners and millers. There is also a move to include Post-1971 uranium workers and to expand the list of “downwind” counties so that victims of atomic testing potentially can receive compensation for illnesses related to radioactive fallout from Cold War-era tests in Nevada and New Mexico.

4. Cron hired as Police Chief, city turmoil
GALLUP — Robert Cron was offered the vacant police chief position on Sept. 7 and he immediately accepted the offer.

Cron was the only applicant who met the requirements for the position, Klo Gasper, a personnel assistant for the city of Gallup, said. He subsequently underwent a series of interviews with the city’s selection committee on Wednesday and was offered the position the following day.

“He accepted immediately,” Gasper said.

Cron will earn an annual salary of $67,163 as part of an agreement between him and the city and will begin serving in the capacity of police chief immediately.

He has been acting as police chief since former Gallup Police Chief Sylvester Stanley was relieved of his duties, Cron and formerly served as deputy police chief for the agency. Cron, a 25-year veteran of police work, said in a previous interview he plans to involve patrol officers in making decisions related to the department.

Cron’s hiring was the culmination of a housecleaning by Mayor Harry Mendoza which included the firing of City Manager Eric Honeyfield.

5. Steve Coleman found guilty
GALLUP — The ongoing saga of Steve Coleman, the Gallup Indian trader who spent 2007 either under house arrest or in jail after pleading no contest to charges of shooting at the unoccupied home of a deputy sheriff and trying to burn down the office of his court-mandated counselor, was a major news story in 2007. At the end of 2007 he began serving a four-year sentence in state prison.

6. Geraldine Draper sentenced
GALLUP — In February, after a nearly 30-year criminal career filled with multiple arrests and criminal complaints but surprisingly few criminal prosecutions, former Gallup resident Geraldine Draper, aka Geraldine Cavanaugh and Geraldine Gillson, was sentenced to seven years in prison by Apache County Superior Court Judge Michael Roca.

Citing aggravating circumstances, the Arizona judge gave Draper the maximum sentence for violating the conditions of her probation. County Attorney Criss Candelaria and Deputy County Attorney Edward “Buzz” France presented evidence that Draper paid off court imposed restitution through embezzlement, forgery, and credit card fraud involving the victimization of elderly Phoenix residents. Draper is the half-sister of McKinley County District Attorney Karl Gillson.

7. Christopher C. Johnson killed
REHOBOTH — On Aug. 14 Gallup lost another of its soldiers to the war in Iraq when Army Chief Warrant Officer Christopher C. Johnson died after the Chinook helicopter he was piloting crashed in Anbar Province. Hundreds of local residents honored the former Green Beret’s military service and sacrifice during a motorcade through Gallup and Rehoboth and a public memorial service. The son of Mary and Charles “Chuck” Johnson, longtime Gallup and Rehoboth educators, Johnson was a member of the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, Task Force 49, of Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Johnson’s body was buried in a private military funeral at the Rehoboth Cemetery, located in the rocky hills where he had enjoyed riding his Harley-Davidson.

8. A town divided?
GALLUP — Why are there no apartments in Gallup? Anyone who has searched for apartments in the middle-class range knows that a good place to live is hard to find here. Is Gallup turning away potential employees for skilled jobs, because they can’t find a place to live? If there is a demand, why aren’t contractors jumping in to create a supply? The article discovers that the rental costs required to make a new apartment building in Gallup profitable are way too high for the area. Unique construction challenges promise that until salaries increase in the city, there will be no new apartment complexes. This was the third in a four-part series on the challenges of improving Gallup’s economy.

9. Cold cash harder to get
GALLUP — Payday lenders faced new regulations in a prolific industry that had previously been free to lend anything to anyone. Some say that the regulations were needed to protect consumers from predatory lenders. Lenders were saying that the new regulations would make them absolutely unprofitable. To date, there have not been any significant closures.

10. Local teenager fatally shot
GALLUP — A 20-year-old Breadsprings man was killed May 31 by a single gun shot wound to the head while standing between two parked cars at the Pinon Hills Apartments.
The 19-year-old Vanderwagen man who is suspected of pulling the trigger of the gun that killed Kevin Begay, is behind bars.

Suspect Brenden James, of Bean Farm Road, found himself surrounded by armed police and FBI agents as his vehicle stopped at a red light at the intersection of New Mexico highways 602 and 564 at about 3:10 p.m. on Friday. He surrendered without incident.

James was booked into the McKinley County Adult Detention Center on an open count of murder and will remain jailed on no bond, pursuant to the arrest warrant. According to an affidavit for arrest, Begay left a voice message with Melissa Olguin, the mother of his child, in the hours prior to his death. In the message, Begay said he “had gotten into some s**t and if he was still alive, he’d do something with her the next day.”

11. A clear motive was never released
GALLUP — A big story that played out throughout the year was the downfall of Karen White, the superintendent of the Gallup-McKinley County Public School District. After new school board members were elected, she realized her days were numbered and finally accepted a one-year buyout of her contract, netting her about $117,000.

12. Hopi Council turnoil
KYKOTSMOVI — The question of whether Hopi Tribal Chairman Benjamin Nuvamsa met the two-year residency requirement as mandated by the Hopi Tribal Constitution when he was elected chairman March 1 remains up in the air as the year draws to a close. Nuvamsa was elected March 1 and removed from office March 27 by majority vote of the council. Nuvamsa sued council representatives, both individually and in their official capacities, alleging his removal was illegal. Hopi Tribal Court Pro Tem Judge Geoffrey Tager ruled that council’s action was unconstitutional. However, Tager later kicked the residency question back to the Hopi Election Board, where it remains, saying the court still cannot say that the board’s decision to certify Nuvamsa “ran counter to the evidence” because the evidence is inconclusive.

13. Acoma named ‘Historic Site’
PUEBLO OF ACOMA — The Pueblo of Acoma’s Sky City, the longest continually inhabited community on the North American continent, was placed on the list of National Trust for Historic Sites in May.

The placement, in the works since 1991, allows the tribe to draw on funding to help restore and care for ancient tribal artifacts through the curator and staff of the Haak’u Museum, in the Sky City Cultural Center at the base of the mesa where Sky City is located.

Sky City is the first Native American site to be listed with the Trust and only the 28th overall.

The tribe’s Historic Preservation Department will now oversee the return of many items taken from the Pueblo and restore them, then placing them in a specially climate-controlled room with little or no humidity for storage.

Being a member of the Trust also allows tribal experts to network with Trust preservation experts, and allows access to cooperative preservation and interpretation of artifacts, said Gov. Jason Johnson.

14. OnSat audit controversy
WINDOW ROCK — A special review by the Office of the Auditor General of Navajo Nation payments to OnSat Network Communications, the Nation’s satellite and wireless provider, alleged that circumventing of controls led to more than $650,000 in questionable and improper payments. Some Navajo officials and OnSat claimed the audit was incomplete and based on partial and inaccurate documents.

OnSat filed suit in Window Rock District Court against Acting Auditor General Elizabeth Begay seeking a permanent injunction to stop her from further distributing or discussing the special review.

15. Kansas escapees captured
GRANTS — A dangerous and dramatic incident where an escaped felon shot at Grants police officers took place in Grants Oct. 31 — two armed male escapees from a Kansas prison, and a former female corrections officer from the same prison, who was also armed — were arrested.

Steven A. Ford, 26, and Jesse L. Bell, 33, both of El Dorado, Kan., were arrested on felony escape warrants from Kansas, with additional local charges stemming from the incident filed against them. The woman, Amber Goff, 26, also of El Dorado, worked up until Oct. 11, and was involved in an "inappropriate relationship" with Ford, a Kansas corrections department spokesman said.

16. A new high school
GALLUP — As the year ended, the decision to create a second high school in Gallup, converting Gallup Junior High into Miyamura High School, was big news. When the news was first made public, the decision resulted in a lot of complaints from parents who said the decision was made without their input and they continue to wait for answers to questions about how the creation of a second high school will affect the city’s athletics program.

17. Medicine man found guilty
GALLUP — The continuing trials of Herbert Yazzie Sr., a Navajo medicine man who had been convicted in 2005 of raping his daughter-in-law, was a real newsmaker. Getting a second trial after an appeal was successful, Yazzie was again convicted in 2007, this time getting a 12-year sentence.

18. New public safety facility
GALLUP — The decision by the county commission to make the building of a new public safety building their top priority was an important one. The city and county have been taking about a joint facility to house both the Gallup Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department. At the end of 2007, the city was still trying to figure out how to fund their portion but the county was prepared to go ahead with or without the city’s support to build a new facility for the Sheriff’s Department.

19. New school board
GALLUP — The election of Genevieve Jackson and Annie Descheney to the school board changed things for Gallup-McKinley County Schools. The election shifted the power away from supporters of White, allowing the two, along with the third Navajo member of the board, Johnny R. Thompson, to shift the focus of the board to providing more attention to improving test scores of students in the district, especially Navajo students.

20. Milan anniversary
MILAN — The village of Milan celebrated its 50th anniversary as an incorporated community in the state of New Mexico in early December.

Village Manager Marcella Sandoval said it is significant to be around for this long, and the village is currently working on its first-ever master plan.

The village currently has about 2,000 residents and is located just west of Grants on Interstate Highway 40 and on historic U.S. Route 66.