Restraining order sought against local publisher

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — Robert Weekes, superintendent of Fox Run Golf Course, has asked the court in a filing March 27 for a hearing seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Gallup Independent Publisher Robert Zollinger.

Weekes filed the complaint in the 11th Judicial District Court in McKinley County, seeking an immediate hearing on his request for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to keep Zollinger “at least 100 feet away from plaintiff at all times and in all places.” Zollinger was served a summons Wednesday and has 30 days to respond. No hearing date has been set.

Zollinger said he is only expressing his opinion, an action protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution.

“Harry Mendoza, some 20 years ago, filed a similar suit against the Independent trying to abridge the First Amendment of freedom of speech. The court granted relief to the Independent saying that opinion is a protected part of free speech,” Zollinger said.

“Harry did not learn his lesson then and is trying the same, small, trivial tactics today,” Zollinger said

Weekes stated in the complaint that he was approached by Zollinger around 4:35 p.m. March 4 outside his place of employment at Gallup Municipal City Hall and “verbally threatened.” He alleged that Zollinger blocked his path repeatedly and that he could not get around him. Zollinger said he was simply asking Weekes a question and he would not respond.

“He then chest bumped me, causing both of us to fall to the ground,” Weekes said, after which he stated that he assisted Zollinger to his feet.

Weekes further alleged that on Oct. 30, 2008, he was “accosted and verbally threatened” by Zollinger “when he barged into a private meeting I was having with another city of Gallup employee at my usual work site, the Fox Run Golf Course.” Weekes alleged that during the incident, Zollinger “fell to the floor while trying to snatch a telephone out of my hand.”

He further alleges that Zollinger has “accosted me repeatedly” at the golf course and berated him in front of other city employees and members of the public; left numerous profane messages on his cell phone; and that Zollinger “barged into a private meeting recently at the Gallup City Hall and delivered a profane tirade directed at me regarding the condition of Fox Run Golf Course.”

Weekes said Zollinger questioned his personal integrity and professional competency in front of several city employees and “persists in publicly vilifying me in his local newspaper” for reasons he said he doesn’t understand.

He alleged that Zollinger has engaged in conduct toward him that constitutes “repeated unlawful assault, battery, harassment, and stalking.” He said he believes Zollinger will continue to do so unless he is legally restrained from further contact.

“This is a cheap and silly attempt to silence the press and curtail our opinions on how terrible the golf course is,” Zollinger said. “It is a gross interference with freedom of speech and the press. Weekes has distorted the facts and embellished other points to present a distorted picture of what happened. It is a sad and pathetic profile of a pathological if not congenial liar.

“The mayor, city manager, the director of golf, and the utility director, in the Independent’s opinion, are inept, incompetent, lack the discipline to do their job and are hard-pressed for answers for their actions,” Zollinger said.

“(Mayor) Harry (Mendoza) is clueless as to what to do other than hire his friends rather than solve the problems of this city. So, his response is to use the legal system attempting to mitigate strong opinions.

“What we have here is an attempt to divert attention from his (Weekes) violent behavior and his inept and incompetent abilities as director of golf. Weekes cannot grow grass; he is at best, as we said in an editorial, a con man wanting to get a free ticket until he retires.

“Both the Gallup Independent and I will vigorously defend this superfluous legal action,” Zollinger said.

City Manager Gerald Herrera said the suit was filed by the city on behalf of Weekes.

“It’s due diligence on the city’s part to keep him out of a hostile-type environment. That is one of the issues under federal labor laws. Any type of harassment that goes on, it’s the city’s responsibility to protect its employees from citizens in that just as well as any private businessman would have to do with his employees from outside private entities or people.”

Herrera said the city is pursuing all the legal action in the case. “We’re protecting him as a city employee from a private individual. Under any harassment-type case, even if say, someone walked up and tried to harassment Bob all the time, he could get a temporary restraining order against them.”

He said Weekes has been advised by the city’s Municipal League insurer, under the self-insurer’s fund, “not to talk to Mr. Zollinger in any shape or form,” which includes providing comments to the Independent regarding the filing.