Discrimination investigation
Navajo Human Rights Comission hears allegations of abuse

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission public hearing to collect complaints and information regarding racial discrimination in Grants Thursday was fraught with dramatic and surprising testimony by one Grants resident who accused a local police officer of racial discrimination, physical and verbal abuse.

In a presentation to the commission, 68-year-old Grants resident Irene Lutz, former New Mexico State University vice president for student services, testified that Grants Police Officer Monica Porter struck her, dragged her by her hair, kicked her, pushed her into a yucca plant twice and verbally abused her ignoring Lutz’s cries of pain and pleas to be treated less abusively.

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