Bengals unstoppable
Alan Arthur
Sports Editor
ALBUQUERQUE — The Gallup Bengals' performance on Friday brought
a tear to their coach's eye.
In a good way.
The Bengals dominated every statistic in the game as they rolled to
an impressive 59-36 rout of the La Cueva Bears in the Class AAAA semifinals
of the New Mexico Girls State Basketball Tournament Friday afternoon
at the Pit.
"I knew we were going to have something special this year,"
Gallup head coach John Lomasney said, who was seen wiping a tear away
outside the lockerroom after the game. "I got choked up on this
game. I just thought that was a wonderful effort.
Everyone on this team. When we made a mistake we made something positive
happen. Then to walk to the free throw line and just put it away.
It was just a fantastic effort. Maybe one of the best Gallup has ever
had."
The Bengals (25-1) will now face the Clovis Wildcats (20-5) in today's
championship game to be played at 3:30 p.m. at the Pit. Clovis defeated
the Sandia Matadors in overtime Friday.
The matchup with the Bears was expected to a tough one for the Bengals,
with both teams having split their season series this past year. But
the Bengals took control early and never gave La Cueva a chance to
get back into the game.
"We wanted this game so bad and we want this tournament so bad
that they weren't going to stop us," Gallup senior Daniella Aretino
said after scoring nine points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
"We wanted to fight all the way (through the tournament) and
we really wanted to play La Cueva. We're glad we did. We're glad we
came up with the victory," Gallup senior Elgia Begay said, who
scored 14 points and shot 10-of-10 from the free throw line.
It wasn't a totally perfect day for the Bengals. Gallup senior Perrline
Kelewood suffered a possible ACL injury in the second quarter and
will miss today's championship game. Kelewood had scored two points,
grabbed four rebounds and handed out two assists before the injury.
Gallup came out running on all cylinders and jumped out to an early
12-4 lead in the first quarter. La Cueva led 4-2 before the Bengals
ran off eight straight points with an inside goal by Aretino, a three-point
shot by Jyme Beth Begaye and a goal and a three-pointer from Roberta
Tahe.
After a La Cueva score broke the streak, Gallup came right back with
a fastbreak layup by Begay and an inside goal by Aretino for a 16-6
lead. The Bengals led 16-7 after the first quarter.
The Bengals went up by 13 points at 22-9 in the second quarter and
were leading 30-16 at halftime.
In the third quarter, La Cueva got as close as 10 points at 30-20
after a pair of free throws by Nadia Delgado and then cut the
margin down to eight points at 32-24 on a jumper by Stacey Marron,
who scored 11 points in the first half and was the only reason the
Bears were as close as they were.
The Bengals went back up at 36-24 at halftime as Begaye hit three
free throws after being fouled on a three-pointer and Aretino hitting
1-of-2 free throws. All six points by the Bengals in the third quarter
came off of free throws as they made 6-of-9 from the line.
That was an omen of things that were to come. Gallup only took five
shots from the field in the third quarter and had only two field goal
attempts in the fourth quarter with Begay scoring on a driving layup.
The rest of the Bengal points came from the free throw line. The Bengals
made 21-of-24 free throws in the final quarter. Gallup drew numerous
fouls on La Cueva on the inside but the Bears also began fouling the
Bengals early, apparently noting that Gallup had trouble making free
throws in their quarterfinal win over Rio Rancho on Thursday.
"We sure didn't miss them today," Lomasney said of his team's
shooting from the foul line. "If we have to go to the free throw
line, we'll do it."
Gallup finished by making 83% of their foul shots, putting down 33-of-40.
Elgia Begay led with her 10-of-10 performance, but Jyme Beth Begaye
followed with a 7-of-7 performance as she scored 15 points and grabbed
eight rebounds, Ramonica Harvey was 6-of-6 as she finished with nine
points, Aretino was 5-of-8 and Tanya Bailey was 4-of-5 to finish with
four points.
That wasn't the only impressive statistic for the Bengals. Gallup
also made 11-of-21 shots from the field for a 52% outing and nailed
four three-pointers. The Bengals also outrebounded the Bears 35-22.
Defensively, Gallup held La Cueva to 28% shooting from the field (12-of-43).
"We all had to give 110 percent throughout the whole game,"
Aretino said. "In the first couple of seconds we had a little
messup, but then we came right back and we played with a lot of intensity.
It took a lot of heart."
"Gallup just beat us, pure and simple," La Cueva head coach
Jerry Brown said, whose team fell to 23-2 on the year. "They
got performance in every facet of the game, they defended us very
well, they executed their offense to near perfection and they took
us out of about everything we wanted to do."
La Cueva will have played the Sandia Matadors in this morning's third
place game at the Pit.
Meanwhile, Gallup prepares to see if they can win their third state
championship. The Bengals won the state title in 1994 and again in
1997.
"I think this year we're all extremely focused and we have one
thing on our minds. We're going for the gold or whatever you call
it," Aretino said.
"It's exciting. We're a family here and we're real glad to be
going for the gold," Begay said. "We're ready to play. We
have the heart and we just have to keep on fighting."
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New jail was violent and risky, suit
claims
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Life at the McKinley County Adult Detention Center was
violent and risky for its inmates when Correctional Services Corp.
managed it, and the jail was also dangerous for its officers, according
to allegations that 15 former CSC employees made in a lawsuit filed
against CSC.
The lawsuit charges CSC unfairly fired those employees because they
would not remain quiet about problems at the facility.
CSC, which operated the detention center from June 1997 until this
past January, gave each of the employees reasons they were fired,
but the plaintiffs said the complaints CSC had about them were not
true.
Former administrative, food service, security and nursing personnel
filed the suit in U.S. district court in Albuquerque. In the suit,
they described the lax security at the jail while they worked there.
William Marchiando, the Albuquerque attorney representing CSC, said
the former employees' "claims are not with any merit." He
made no other comments.
No training
Guards and other people who interacted with inmates daily did not
receive proper training, claimed Christopher Webb in the lawsuit.
He was a guard with CSC from March to July 1998.
In an interview with the Independent, Webb, a former police officer,
said CSC told him he did not need any training to be a guard.
But Webb said handling people on the streets as a policeman is different
from dealing with inmates all day in a jail. The jail requires skills
he should have attained through training as a guard, he said.
Though he only had about 24 hours of training, CSC gave Frank Lyons,
the food service director from June 1997 until June 1998, a certificate
saying he attended 160 hours of training, Lyons said in an interview
with the Independent.
In his six years of work in jails before CSC, Lyons said he always
received the training required for his positions.
In the lawsuit, Lyons said incidents arose in the kitchen that he
and the guard working with him could not handle.
In the interview, Lyons said a female inmate assigned to help in the
kitchen, "picked up a knife and threatened me, saying she had
a 65-year sentence and had nothing to lose by killing someone else."
When the incident occurred, Lyons said, then-guard Theresa Burrola,
who was in the kitchen, "started yelling, 'Time out, time out!'
like we were playing with kids. This is the kind of training we had."
Violent inmates in kitchen
Placing violent inmates in the kitchen set the stage for this incident,
Lyons said.
"In all my years of food service, I've never had convicted murderers
working in the kitchen where they're given access to knives and stuff,"
Lyons said.
In the lawsuit, Lyons said he often talked to his supervisors about
the risk of putting violent prisoners in the kitchen. Despite his
concerns, the inmates remained in the kitchen, Lyons said.
The knives in the kitchen should have been tied to the counter, but
the cables binding them to the counter were usually missing or broken,
Webb said in an interview.
The women Lyons and Webb described as violent came from Montana. Under
the contract with that state, 30 of them had to have jobs in the kitchen,
Lyons said.
In the lawsuit, Lyons said Bob Bass, then the facility administrator,
told staff the Montana women were hardened criminals before they arrived
at the jail.
Lyons said he met a female inmate assigned to kitchen work who had
killed her husband for money, another woman who killed her mother
for not properly baby-sitting her baby and several others who murdered
more than one person.
Fights between these and other violent offenders occurred often in
the kitchen and around the jail, said both Lyons and Webb.
Problems with inmates
Lyons said assigning violent women kitchen duties was a part of a
bigger problem: admitting violent male and female inmates from all
over the nation.
In the lawsuit, Webb said he told his supervisors that neither the
detention facility nor the guards were equipped to handle violent
offenders.
Many plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they made similar comments to
Bass and other CSC administrators.
CSC wrote McKinley County commissioners, saying the detention center
housed only minimum- or medium-security inmates, the type of prisoners
the jail was designed to handle.
However, the classification of those inmates may not be reliable.
Last year, a special state government advisory group was formed to
look into the state's prison systems.
The group hired five corrections consultants who did a state-wide
prisons study and found the state's classification system was unreliable.
The consultants reported that loopholes in the classification procedure
could place violent criminals in lower security risk categories than
they should be.
Michael Heredia, the jail's counselor and program director from June
1997 to July 1998, said in the lawsuit that his written complaints
to his supervisors about violent inmates led to his termination.
Heredia was a licensed detention officer who could escort prisoners
into his office if he needed to. He asked for a characterization of
inmates that was clearer and more elaborate than the minimum- or medium-security
classifications so he would know what kinds of people he dealt with,
Heredia said in an interview.
Instead of providing him with this information, CSC changed its rules
to say he could no longer move inmates, Heredia said.<cm+bd>Overcrowded
jail<cm-bd>On July 13, 1998, Heredia wrote a memorandum to then-director
of administration, Mable Henderson, listing his concerns with high-risk
inmates and an overcrowded jail.
The same day Heredia wrote his letter, Bass wrote Heredia, saying
CSC had abolished Heredia's position. Bass offered Heredia a new position
with less pay, and Heredia refused to accept it.
Bass replied to the concerns in Heredia's letter two days later, explaining
the jail only houses minimum- and medium-security prisoners. Bass
also said the detention center was not overcrowded.
Other officers said in the lawsuit they saw problems
with overcrowding.
In the lawsuit, Lyons said serving food to the more than 300 prisoners
who eventually filled the detention center was difficult because the
kitchen and cafeteria were designed to serve only 200 inmates.
Officer JoAnn Bailey and Heredia said in the lawsuit they saw McKinley
County inmates sleeping on the floor because bed space was not available.
With the influx of prisoners from out of the county, properly placing
prisoners was difficult, Heredia said in an interview. He said he
saw minimum, medium and violent offenders in the same pod, which he
thought was unsafe for the inmates.
Inmates hurt each other
Bailey was a guard at the jail from June 1997 to August 1997 and from
January 1998 to July 1998. In the lawsuit, she said she saw hickeys
on a young man's neck and suspected a larger, more violent inmate
with whom he shared a pod was raping him.
Bailey reported her suspicions to Bass, advising him to move the younger
man, but nothing was done to investigate or ameliorate the situation.
In the lawsuit, Bailey claimed Bass responded to her concern, saying,
"He must like it if he's not complaining."
Inmates at the detention center also bullied guards, said Lyons, the
former food service director.
"Most of the McKinley inmates and staff (were) scared of the
Bernalillo (County) inmates," Lyons said. "They (the Bernalillo
inmates) knew they could bulldog (bully) the staff and (officers)
would leave them alone."
Lack of security personnel
Understaffing also added to this fear, former employees who are plaintiffs
in the lawsuit told the Independent.
Webb, who worked late-night shifts, said people often did not fill
all the positions at night. Most nights, Webb said, he saw only four
officers at the jail instead of the 10 who were scheduled to work.
He said enough people were assigned to work, but many did not show
up. He said the jail's administrators needed to assign extra people
to the positions in case people did not show up.
Some areas in the jail were neglected during the day also, the plaintiffs
said in the lawsuit. Lyons said he often requested guards for the
kitchen, but was denied them.
"Bob (Bass) told me, 'You don't need anybody, because all you
have to do is pick up the phone,'" Lyons said in an interview.
"Well, what if you can't pick up the phone?"
When a female inmate from Montana tried to hurt him with a butcher
knife, he could not get to a phone and had to wait for security guards
to come, Lyons said.
When he would call on officers for assistance after fights broke out,
they usually took five or more minutes to arrive, Lyons said in the
lawsuit.
In general, plaintiffs argued that the administrative officers at
the county jail and the people at CSC headquarters in Sarasota, Fla.,
would not cooperate with the staff's requests.
Lack of communication
Lack of communication was pervasive in the operation of the facility,
Webb added.
For example, when Webb was on leave one day, an inmate pretended to
be Webb and asked the officer at the control desk to open the door,
Webb said in the lawsuit. The inmate entered another pod, beat up
an inmate and stole his property.
The officers at the control desk should have known Webb was not in
the facility that day, and they should have checked the video before
opening the pod door, Webb said in an interview.
Heredia, Lyons and Webb said these kinds of misunderstandings were
a strong indication of the officers' inexperience and lack of training,
something the administration should have attended to.
Voicing such concerns may have led to the end of their jobs, they
added.
Staff requests ignored
In her interview, Bailey said she found a jumpsuit in a room next
to the kitchen and suspected an inmate must have undressed and escaped.
But after filling out the appropriate forms, she said, she could not
get anyone to investigate the matter.
In the lawsuit, Webb said he gave suggestions to Bass and others to
improve the facility, but his requests would not receive attention.
In his interview with the Independent, Webb said he told Bass the
television sets should have been wired directly into the wall instead
of plugged into electrical outlets.
CSC did not act on his suggestion, Webb said. He saw inmates strip
the electrical cords, put part of the wire back into the outlet and
use the other part to heat liquids, and one inmate once burned another
inmate with hot water, he added.
The day before CSC fired Webb in July 1998, he said in the lawsuit,
he noticed loose rocks and bricks lined the recreation area outside.
In an interview, he said he told Bass that tar should be used instead
of loose rocks because an inmate could use the rocks and bricks to
hurt somebody.
CSC told Webb he was fired for stealing food and bringing cigarettes
for inmates.
Webb denied the charges, telling the Independent he walked home from
work, so he did not have a place to put stolen materials. Since he
does not smoke, he added, he would not have given cigarettes to inmates.
He said he agreed to take a lie detector test to prove his arguments,
but CSC decided not to give him one.
Webb said he believes his comments about the facility influenced CSC's
decision to terminate him.
"I got fired because I started shaking the boat. I guess he (Bass)
didn't like us telling him how to do his job," Webb said. "I
know me and Bass clashed, especially when he would walk down the hall,
and I would say, 'Hey, how come this is broke?' or 'Hey, when are
you going to fix this?'"
Bob Bass and Fred Bagley, CSC vice president, would not comment on
the case.
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Former employees want $36 million
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Former employees have brought a lawsuit against Correctional
Services Corp., asking for more than $36 million for unjustly terminating
them when they worked at the CSC-managed McKinley County Adult Detention
Center.
CSC ran the jail from June 1997 until this past January.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court in January.
Fifteen former employees from the CSC administrative, security, food
service and nursing staff allege that the company fired them because
they complained about problems they saw and asked for changes.
CSC gave each of the former employees a reason for his/her termination,
but the workers said CSC's complaints against them were not valid.
Moreover, the plaintiffs said they were never given a chance to argue
for themselves against CSC's reasons for termination.
In addition to the more than $36 million the plaintiffs are asking
for general and punitive damages, they are also asking for compensation
on lost wages and benefits and attorneys fees.
For 12 of the plaintiffs, this is not the first lawsuit they have
filed against CSC. In September 1998, 11 former employees filed separate
lawsuits against CSC for firing them.
The 12th person, Andrew James, the jail's head nurse from June to
November 1998, filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination in January
1999. Gallup attorney William Stripp filed all 12 lawsuits in the
McKinley County district court.
Those cases were first assigned to County District Court Judge Joseph
Rich. Stripp said he heard that Rich was Bob Bass's godfather. Bass
was the facility administrator and one of the defendants in the cases
at that time. Rich could not be reached Friday afternoon for comment.
Stripp filed a motion to excuse the judge, but after Rich was excused,
the courts found Stripp's motion was submitted after the deadline
for motions to excuse judges. The case was returned to Rich, and Stripp
said he decided to file the case in federal court. The cases were
dismissed from county court.
In January, one lawsuit naming all 15 former CSC personnel as plaintiffs
was filed in federal court. Stripp said he does not expect the suit
to go before a judge until this fall.
Of the 15 plaintiffs, only one, guard Lojann Hooee, has returned to
work at the detention center under the new operating company, Management
and Training Corp.
CSC attorneys have filed a motion to have the case dismissed, arguing
the lawsuit should have been filed in a state court. The case is in
U.S. district court.
Besides CSC, no other defendant is listed in the new case in federal
court. CSC counsel wrote in its motion that Bob Bass, the facility
administrator under CSC, should be included as a defendant because
he is mentioned several times in the plaintiffs' statements against
CSC.
In their motion to dismiss the case, the CSC attorneys wrote that
since Bass and the plaintiffs both live in New Mexico, if the lawsuit
includes Bass, the case will have to be filed in state court.
Stripp argued that Bass' actions were a direct result of CSC's instructions,
so CSC must take full responsibility. Bass does not need to be named
as a defendant, Stripp added.
Since CSC, the defendant, is headquartered in Florida and the plaintiffs
live in New Mexico, the claim should be filed in federal court, Stripp
said.
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Correction
An article, published Thursday, about a 10-year-old boy accused of
threatening his 8-year-old playmate with a knife stated the child
was charged with aggravated assault. However, the child faces no charges
in connection with the incident. According to New Mexico law, a child
10 years or younger cannot be charged with an offense as serious as
aggravated assault.
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Former CSC employees claim kitchen workers
had hepatitis
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Hazardous medical conditions at the McKinley County
Adult Detention Center were neglected by Correctional Services Corp.
administrators who once managed the facility, said several former
CSC employees in a lawsuit they have brought against the company in
U.S. district court.
The plaintiffs were fired from their jobs at the jail for various
reasons given by CSC, but the former prison staff said in their lawsuit,
filed in January, they were fired for bringing problems to people's
attention.
Many of those problems involved deteriorating medical services at
the jail that administrators did not correct, some plaintiffs said
in the lawsuit...
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Native American shoppers keep Gallup
humming
Walter Howerton Jr.
Staff Writer
Editor's Note: This is the first of an occasional series that will
look at the Gallup economy.
GALLUP — Poor people pay extra. It's as American as apple pie.
And in Gallup, it's as Native American as lamb stew and pion nuts.
One way or another, the economy of Gallup rests squarely on the backs
of Native Americans, mostly Navajos.
It is these faces of Indian people that adorn Gallup's billboards
along Interstate 40 and also its tourist brochures. They are noble
and fine faces, artfully and romantically sepia-toned tourist bait
for the string of motels, restaurants and the seemingly endless shops
selling Native American arts and crafts...
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Mother takes sons jewelry before being
jailed for DWI
Mary E. Davis
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Before Jeremy Martin was hauled off to jail by village
of Milan police officers March 4 on a drunk-driving charge, his mother
tried to make sure her teen-age son didn't take anything valuable
with him.
Martin, a Grants resident, was sitting in the back of a police vehicle
when his mother asked an officer if she could speak to him. The officer
allowed it. The woman, apparently concerned about her son's jewelry,
took Martin's gold-colored necklace from around his neck and a bracelet
from his wrist. The handcuffs prevented her from getting his watch.
She did, however, obtain his blue Ford pickup truck when officers
released the vehicle into her custody...
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Navajos mobilize to get money from Washington
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — President Clinton has proposed more than a billion
additional dollars for Indian programs in the federal budget for the
coming fiscal year and the Navajo Nation wants its share.
Because of this, the Diné continue to mobilize their forces
for the annual campaign in Washington for more money from the U.S.
treasury to meet 1868 treaty obligations to the Navajos.
This year the U.S. treasury provides about two-thirds of the Navajo
Nation's $313 million budget, and if the tribe's revenues fail to
increase as much as the new federal funds, that percentage would increase
to an undetermined portion of the Navajo budget...
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President Begaye reorganizing his administration
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — Fourteen months into his administration, Navajo Nation
President Kelsey Begaye is reorganizing his staff.
The reorganization which has been in the works for months will align
the duties of Begaye's staff assistants with their areas of expertise,
said Mellor Willie, Begaye's press spokesman.
Reorganizations by tribal presidents are not uncommon, and they occur
about every two years, mainly in the past to switch assignments from
someone who was not doing his or her job to someone the tribal leader
hoped would actually get it done...
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Pope OKs canonization of Katherine Drexel
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pope John Paul II approved sainthood Friday
for Katharine Drexel, a Philadelphia socialite who took a vow of poverty
and devoted her fortune to helping poor blacks and American Indians.
Drexel, who died in 1955, will be canonized Oct. 1 in
St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, said Philadelphia Archbishop Cardinal
Anthony Bevilacqua. Drexel was the founder of the St. Catherine Indian
School in Santa Fe, N.M., which closed in 1998 after more than 100
years of operation.
She was also instrumental in the development of St. Michaels Indian
School in Window Rock."Catholics everywhere, and especially in
the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, will rightfully rejoice at this great
news," he said...
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Deaths
Wiliam Allen (Bill) Foster
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — William Allen (Bill) Foster, 69, died
March 3 in Oklahoma City, Okla. He was born Oct. 25, 1930 in Amsterdam,
N.Y. to Viola and Joseph Matthews.
Foster was employed with Farmers Insurance Agency in both Farmington
and Gallup. He was a U.S. Army Korean War Veteran and an active member
of First Assembly of God Church in Roswell.
Survivors include his wife, Emilie Foster of Roswell; son, William
J. Foster of Phoenix, Ariz.; daughters, Jo McGuffin of Edmond, Okla.
and Sharon McMahon of Panama City, Fla.; and five grandchildren.
Foster was preceded in death by his parents, Joseph Foster and Viola
Foster; and a brother, Robert Foster.
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