Coleman to be released
May avoid rehab stipulation

Steve Coleman is escorted by police and corrections officers into the McKinley County Courthouse in this July 21, 2006, file photo. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Staff Photo

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

SANTA FE — A man whom many consider a black mark on the history of Gallup’s law enforcement will be released from prison June 30.

Former Gallup Police officer and Indian arts trader Steve Coleman, 49, will have to stay as many as six months — more likely three months — in a halfway house in Albuquerque when he walks out of the state penitentiary in three weeks, according to his attorney, Robert Cooper, of Albuquerque.

“Once (the parole board and managers of the half-way house) determine that he’s ready to go home, then he’ll be sent ... he’ll be paroled to Gallup ... there is no definite time frame,” Cooper said Tuesday.

Charged with 13 felonies in August 2006  — in part for shooting at a deputy’s home in retaliation against a DWI citation, and for using bleach and gasoline to ignite the basement of an alcohol-rehabilitation counseling office — Coleman agreed to a plea bargain in 2007 that boiled the charges down to one count each of dangerous use of explosives and shooting at an occupied building, both fourth-degree felonies, and retaliation against a witness, a second-degree felony. Police contend that Coleman is the suspected firestarter behind at least two other arsons between 2000 and 2006. Coleman also has a federal record. He was convicted 20 years ago of selling poached eagle feathers.

In 2007, Coleman was sentenced to nine years in prison, but Judge Robert Aragon suspended most of the sentence on the condition that Coleman “complete an inpatient substance abuse treatment program that the court recommends be Fort Stanton,” according to Coleman’s judgment and sentence filed at the Eleventh Judicial District Court. He was exposed to 4 1/2 years in prison, but in New Mexico, inmates receive a day toward their sentence for each day of “good behavior” during incarceration.

“There is an indication that he has been complying with programming on all levels (inside the Department of Corrections),” New Mexico Parole Board Executive Director Ella Frank said Tuesday.

That is the apparent reason for Coleman’s June 30 release date — after serving about 2 years and 4 months, including the 186 days he was behind bars prior to his conviction.

At sentencing, Aragon called the rehab conditional “a gift,” to help Coleman overcome an admittedly decades-old battle against alcohol.

Fort Stanton is a privately-run drug- and alcohol-rehab facility about 20 miles northeast of Ruidoso. It offers six-month, intensive rehabilitation programs. In December, its management refused to accept Coleman, according to Frank. The reason for its refusal is not made public.

Asked if it’s possible that Coleman will leave prison without ever meeting the rehabilitation condition of his sentence, Frank said: “The difficulty ... is we have a shortage of resources in this state ... it is a problem ... if, for some reason, there is no facility available, they will try to fashion an outpatient program ... we would work with them to come up with a plan that will satisfy the spirit of the J&S (Judgment and Sentence).”

“The Fort Stanton program is a 6-month program ... presumably the court had in mind something like that. It looks like the court wants to get him into something, but the resources are few and far between,” Frank said. “It’s difficult.

And it’s getting more difficult because everybody’s resources are getting cut.”

Cooper said that’s the reason Coleman wound up at a half-way house in Albuquerque. Nothing else is available to him.

Coleman’s victims — many of whom are police officers — are so far unsatisfied with the justice system ... for another reason: Restitution.

Coleman riddled the home of McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy James Mariano with 39 bullet holes Dec. 7, 2005, according to the grand jury indictment dated Aug. 2, 2006.

Police believe Coleman fired at the home Old West style — two .45-caliber handguns fired simultaneously; once emptied, the magazines were reloaded. Mariano and his family were not home at the time. Mariano claimed damages in the amount of about $21,000 — the cost to repair doors, windows, walls and furniture.

So far Coleman has not been forced to pay any of it, and the issue of restitution remains ambiguous. Asked about Coleman’s plans to pay in the future, his attorney postures for yet another legal battle that seems almost inevitable.

“This was only a 1995 single-wide mobile home ... probably worth a lot less than the deputy is claiming it is worth ... he could go out and buy a used mobile home of the same year and pay a lot less than he’s asking my client to pay,” Cooper said.

“It looks like restitution is mandated, if it’s the appropriate thing to do,” Frank said.

She said the Parole Board’s function is to incorporate the terms of the judgment and sentence into Coleman’s parole plan, but that the office of Probation and Parole — a separate department entirely — is ultimately responsible for drafting a payment schedule.

Another reason victims are unhappy with the justice system is that they claim they were never notified of Coleman’s May 22 hearing before the parole board. State statute requires that victims be made aware, in writing, of any hearings — and offered the opportunity to appear and be heard. The hearing would have afforded an opportunity for victims to speak on the issues of restitution, and probation.

Assistant District Attorney John Bernitz has been handed the Coleman case, following the retirement of former prosecutor Mike Calligan. He said the terms of probation — effectively a less-restrictive form of parole, which continues after the parole period has ended — are standard language in the template used to draft plea agreements. He said that, at some point during Coleman’s legal saga, the probation requirement was deleted.

“I don’t see it on the record anywhere,” Bernitz said Monday.

“Not the judge, the defense or us ... my gut feeling is it’s an oversight because it’s boilerplate language in the J&S ... someone would have had to purposely taken it out, which makes me think it was the intent of the parties.”

Cooper claims it would violate double-jeopardy laws to add probation now, but Coleman’s two-years of parole is undisputed.

There remains some indication, however, that Coleman’s victims will have say in his plans for the future.

“The parole board called the other day,” Bernitz said. “They left a message with the wrong victim’s advocate. She was out for a week. The call bounced around the office and finally got to me, and basically what they said was no victims showed up to the parole board hearing, but the parole board would like some written statements from them in regards to Steve Coleman ... now is the time to maybe talk, and say, ‘listen, here’s what the victims say.’”