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Man charged with sex abuse

Staff Report

PHOENIX — A federal grand jury has returned indictments against several people on charges ranging from sexual abuse to involuntary manslaughter.

Andrew Nez, 40, of Window Rock, has been charged in connection with an incident in which his young son was injured.

Nez was indicted and charged with assault resulting in serious bodily injury which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and aggravated sexual abuse of a child, which carries up to life imprisonment.

Nez is accused of shaking his 5-month-old son, which resulted in injury to his eyes which required surgery.

When Tribal Child Protection Services checked on Nez's other children, they discovered the victim's 2 -year-old sister to be in poor health. A medical examination revealed signs of sexual molestation.

Nez is in Navajo tribal custody on related charges.

Duane Les Bitsuie, 24, of Steamboat was indicted on two counts of abusive sexual contact. The maximum penalty is 15 years imprisonment, per count.

Delbert John, 27, of Red Valley was indicted on two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of assault resulting in serious bodily injury. John is accused of assaulting Wilton Benally and Ambrose Begay with a baseball bat on Sept. 3, 1999. The maximum sentence is 10 years imprisonment, per count.

Larry Harris Cambridge and Victor Juan Cambridge were indicted for assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. They are accused of assaulting Gregory Naseyowma with wooden chair legs, resulting in serious bodily injury to the victim. The maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment, each count.

Benny Joe Kabinto Jr. was indicted for assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily injury.He is accused of assaulting Kaye Lynn Yazzie with a knife on April 17. The maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment.

Floyd Begay was indicted for involuntary manslaughter. The defendant is accused of driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated on April 6, 1998, killing Carlos Yazzie. The maximum penalty is six years imprisonment.

An indictment is the method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and an individual's guilt is established only upon conviction.

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Gallup taking steps to spruce up golf course

Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The days when local golfers can blame the lousy condition at the Gallup Municipal Golf Course for their high golf scores may soon be over.

"We've finally figured how what the problem is and we're taking steps to correct it," said Alex Alvarez, who has run the golf course for the past 18 years.

Golfers have been complaining about the condition of several holes at the golf course for months and wondering why something wasn't done to correct the problem.

The answer is simple: No one knew exactly what to do.

Alvarez said the problem began in June 1999 when a pump at the sewage treatment plant broke down. Since the city uses effluent water from the treatment plant to water the course, Alvarez and others on the staff had to watch for the next 12 days as the course went without water except for one or two rain showers.

"And then after that, 17 of the next 30 days, we had too much rain," he said. "It was a double whammy."

Alvarez managed to get enough water to maintain the greens but the fairways suffered the most. By the end of the summer, fairways on the first through fourth hole, as well as No. 10, were in deplorable condition.

"People suggested that we use fire trucks to bring in water but if people knew how much water it took to water the course, they would realize that this wouldn't work," he said.

A little Golf Course Upkeep 101 is needed here.

It takes between 750,000 and 800,000 gallons of water nightly to water the course. The biggest water truck the city has holds 3,000 gallons so it would take one truck 10 trips just to water one hole.

"And you have to wonder what damage those heavy trucks would have on the course," Alvarez said.

Water is the lifeblood of any course and for those courses in climates like Gallup, huge quantities of water have to come from another source, which is why the city uses water from the sewage plant to water the golf course and Sports Complex. To use potable water would put a serious drain on the water available to Gallup residents for drinking and other use.

Alvarez estimates that the golf course uses about 191 million gallons of water a year. At the same time, golfers pay for about 22,000 rounds of golf a year. That means it takes almost 9,000 gallons of water for every round of golf. That's about the same amount of water that a family of four would use for baths and showers for three months.

It didn't help that at the same time the golf course crew was trying to cope with the water problems last summer, the superintendent who oversees the condition of the golf course, Greg Shipley, was leaving to take a new position and the city would spend the next eight months looking for a replacement.

Alvarez said that the grounds crew reseeded those fairways that were affected the worse, but the seeds would never take hold and as the spring months came and went, more and more golfers began complaining and threatening to drive to Grants to play on that city's course.

While he admits there have been complaints, Alvarez said he doesn't know of any of the course regulars who have actually stopped playing in Gallup and have gone to Grants.

Finally, after meeting with Gallup Mayor John Pena and City Manager David Ruiz both of whom said they would support whatever measures were needed to return the course back to its former level some decisions were made.

The first was to get Gary Mesich back as soon as possible.

Mesich was the grounds superintendent for 27 years until his retirement in July 1998. After some negotiations, he agreed to come back not as a city employee but under a contract so his retirement pay would not be affected. He is scheduled to be back at work within the next week or two.

The second was to hire expects from New Mexico State University and a private firm to test the soil and try to determine why the ground crew has not been able to improve the fairways.

The experts came and a few days ago the city received the answer. The experts say it all boils down to the type of water the city is using to water the course.

Mesich said that the effluent water has a high alkali level and has been putting too much salt in the soil. While the grass at the golf course is used to those levels, the new seeds were not and for that reason, the new grass was killed before it had a chance to grow.

The solution, Mesich said, is to inject chemicals into the water that the golf course uses to lower the pH level and allow the new seeds a chance to grow. Mesich said that the grounds crew will also have to do more to aerate or break down the soil and allow more oxygen to get to the new seedlings.

Alvarez said that the grounds crew are now implementing the new procedures and he expects that within a couple of months, the course will look a lot better.

But Mesich warned golfers not to expect a miracle.

"It's going to take years to get the course looking as good as it did," he said. "When we had problems back in 1988 and 1989 that affected the course, it took a good 10 years to get the course back to that level."

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Delegates to arrive on horses

Diné Bureau

PAGE, Ariz. — The fifth annual Navajo Nation Council "Ride to the Chamber" for the summer session in Window Rock will begin here at 8 a.m. (DST) Thursday.

Organizer Larry Noble, Steamboat Chapter delegate, said everyone is invited to join the ride anywhere along the trail, but must provide his own horse, feed, water and other necessities, although chapters along the route will host the group for dinner and breakfast.

Noble said the first night will be spent in Shonto, the second at Whippoorwill, the third in Ganado via Tselani and the fourth at Navajo Nation Fairgrounds. On July 17, the group will then make the ceremonial ride the two miles to the Council Chambers for the opening of the week-long summer session.

"We dedicate and honor this annual ride to the past and present leadership. Many young people are interested and participate in this ride, so it's also a learning experience about our way of life," Noble said.

The journey recalls the days before high-speed roads and motor vehicles when tribal legislators rode to the quarterly sessions on horseback or in horse-drawn wagons.

Donations of food, feed and water are welcome at each camp site. To donate, telephone Noble at (520) 871-9358 or 871-6380; Carolyn Calvin at (520) 871-7160 or Herb Long at (520) 871-6352.

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Navajo murders called hate crimes

S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

GALLUP — San Juan County Sheriff's detectives are investigating several recent murders of Navajos to determine if the crimes were racially motivated and should be classified as "hate crimes."

But the Coalition for Navajo Liberation, a small splinter group of the American Indian Movement, already has made that assessment and organized a protest, calling for justice from the court system.

"The 1970s' incidents against Native people continue to exist and even worsen," a statement issued by the group claimed.
"The millennium of this new generation must awake to address these serious acts of violence against all people."

The hate crime demonstration was supposed to coincide with the preliminary hearings for accused murderers Robert Fry and Leslie Engh, originally set for June 27 and 28 at district court in Aztec. The hearings were rescheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday. It is not known whether the protests were rescheduled as well.

After learning about the protest, the families of victims Betty Lee and Donald Tsosie requested that organizations refrain from protesting and allow the justice system to be allowed to work unprovoked.

What is a "hate crime?"

Congress has defined it as a "Crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim ... because of the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation of any person."

Although a bill for hate crime legislation has been presented three times in the last seven years in New Mexico, there are no laws enacted at present and the state is one of only 10 without such a law.

Opposing state senators argue that the bill would create a special class of crime victim, invade a crime victim's privacy and establish a "protected class."

Republican N.M. Sen. L. Skip Vernon said the real solution is to make sure judges impose the maximum sentence when offenders commit crimes motivated by hate.

Advocates for the bill suggest that it is especially important in states with such a diverse population as New Mexico.

The labeling of a crime under the category of a hate crime is done for data collection, research and policy purposes on a national basis. While the FBI maintains a data base for hate crimes, the data pertaining to Native Americans is skewed, since Alaska, Montana, South Dakota and New Mexico do not participate in the report. Albuquerque, however, did participate in the report with 14 incidents in 1998.

Information provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization that monitors the activities of supremacist groups and organizations created to cultivate hate, claims that hate crimes against Native Americans are more prevalent in typically Anglo communities that border large American Indian reservations where hunting, fishing and water rights conflict with Anglo interests.

"Hate crimes against Indians go unreported," the SPLC staff report explained, "because Indians fear making complaints against whites to white law enforcement officials."

In statements made by the FBI as part of its budget request for 1998 and 1999, crimes in Indian Country were particularly noted.

"What communities around the nation are experiencing as reduced levels of crime, that is not the case for communities in Indian Country," the report begins. "The consensus among law enforcement officials, academicians and community groups is that the hate crime problem is far more pervasive than currently recognized."

The Uniform Crime Report released by the FBI yearly counted nearly 11,000 hate crimes nationwide, ranging across the spectrum and including murder, rape, manslaughter and arson in 1998, the last complete year of data available.

The congressional statement also revealed these facts:

The murder rate nationwide declined 20 percent between 1992 and 1996; however, communities in Indian country have seen a rise of 87 percent over the same period.

An Indian male is three times as likely to be murdered as a white male.

Reported crime in Indian Country is twice as likely to be violent.

There are fewer than half as many law enforcement officers per capita in Indian country than elsewhere in the U.S.

In answer to the increasing problem, the FBI asked for an increase of three staff positions, a redirecting of 40 agents into a hate crime investigation unit and $196,000 to enhance its capability to combat this trend. Increasing its outreach programs was also mentioned in its plans. The intent is to increase a climate where people feel safe to report these crimes.

Another phase of the plan will provide training to law enforcement agencies to raise their awareness about situations that can result in civil rights violations "committed under the collar of the law."

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Some Gallup schools to offer full-day kindergarten next year

Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Many kindergartners will join their elder schoolmates for a full day of school next year.

The New Mexico Legislature chose to require school districts to offer full-day kindergarten programs. The legislation especially targets those schools where the young students are in need of more attention earlier.

Eventually, in five years, full-day kindergarten will be phased in everywhere. The New Mexico Department of Education estimates the five-year cost to be about $43 million.

At this time, the state will fund full-day kindergarten for 71 public elementary schools in 23 school districts. Of the 20 Gallup-McKinley County elementary schools, 16 will receive the funding. Throughout the state, 253 schools applied...

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Yazzie captures all-around

Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer

BURNHAM — Seba Dalkai, Ariz. cowboy Donovan Yazzie grabbed the all-around honor that was worth an extra $500 during the NNRCA-sanctioned Burnham rodeo that was held over the weekend.

Yazzie won the calf roping and then placed in the steer wrestling to gain the all-around honor. All event champs received buckles.

The next NNRCA-sanctioned rodeo will be the Little Beaver Roundup Saturday, July 15 in Dulce. Performances will be at 1 and 7 p.m. Call-ins will be taken today, Tuesday and Wednesday from 6-10 p.m. Grants will be hosting the E-7 Rodeo July 22-23. Call-ins for that rodeo will be July 17-19 from 6-10 p.m. Call CES Victoria Pablo at (505) 786-4924.

A reminder that in order to meet INFR qualifications contestants must participate in at least 40 percent of the NNRCA rodeo...

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Fire limits still in effect

Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — As of Friday the rains were not as much as National Forest Service officials had hoped for. But over the weekend, more rain fell on Cibola National Forest, making fire conditions less severe.

For the first time in 26 years Cibola National Forest closed June 3 because of the extreme fire hazard caused by the driest conditions to hit the Southwest in recorded history. From Jan. 1 to July 9 there were a total of 1,189 wildfires in New Mexico, 755 of them caused by man. The 755 fires represent 353,010 acres of charred forests and land. There were 434 lightning-caused fires representing 53,537 acres. In all, 406,547 acres of New Mexico have burned since Jan. 1.

From the second week in May until June 3, the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service placed Level III fire restrictions on federal lands, the highest restrictions available, meaning even smoking on federal lands was prohibited.

On June 30, Cibola National Forest reopened to the public, but the Level III remains in effect...

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Gallup continues to dominate districts

Alan Arthur
Sports Editor

GALLUP — Gallup continues to dominate District 9 in Little League softball.

But at least one Gallup team received a wakeup call.

The Gallup All-Star softball team overcame a 12-run inning by the Tohatchi All-Stars to take a 25-12 victory in their championship game of the Senior Division (13-14 year olds) at Veterans Memorial Park Sunday night.

In other championship games Sunday, Gallup shut out Tohatchi 10-0 in the Major Division (11-12 year olds) and Gallup was a 21-6 victor over Tohatchi in the 9&10 year old division...

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Teamsters, others back striking miners

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

TSE BONITO — The largest shipment of food yet received for union members striking the McKinley Mine is being distributed by Local 1332 of the United Mine Workers of America.

Meanwhile the UMWA announced letters of support from several international unions as the strike against Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining Company entered its 57th day today.

Lawrence Oliver, the local's president, said Friday, "If we are not moving on the main issues, why talk? There's been no change; they are still hanging on to their proposals." The company and union have conducted preliminary sparring about returning to the bargaining table they left on June 7 after one day.

The union also sent its members letters Wednesday in reply to one from the company a few days earlier...

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Family: Murder victim was trying for new life

S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Betty Lee, 36, of Shiprock, single mother of five teen-agers went out for a night of fun with some friends. She never made it back to Shiprock. She was brutally raped and murdered by two men pretending to be Good Samaritans offering her a ride.

She had gone to The Turnaround Bar in Farmington with friends. For some reason, they left without her. Lee was abandoned with no ride home.

Shiprock police officer Norman Lee said that his sister didn't deserve this fate. And he is still in shock and saddened.

"We never expected anything like this would happen to a sister," Lee said. "There are three of us in law enforcement and we just always thought if some tragedy happened, it would be one of us..."

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Deaths

Helen A. Garcia

GALLUP — Funeral mass and a rosary for Helen A. Garcia, 74, will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 11, at St. Francis Catholic Church. Fr. Diego Mazon, O.F.M., will officiate. Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park in Gallup.

Visitation is today from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Rollie Mortuary-Palm Chapel.

Garcia died July 7 in Albuquerque, N.M. She was born August 13, 1925 in Gallup.

Garcia was a member of the Ladies GI Form and the Croation Lodge.

Survivors include a son, Tony Garcia of Hermosa Beach, Calif.; daughter, Dianne Abeita of Gallup; brother, Steve Maynerich of Gallup; sister, Margaret Ratje of Sun Lake, Ariz.; 2 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

Garcia was preceded in death her husband, Tony Garcia; father, Steve Maynerich; and mother, Mary Blazevich.

Pallbearers will be Alfred Abeita, Ernie Abeita, Kenneth Abeita, Bart Mangum, Donald Maynerich, and Joe Maynerich.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Earl Donald

GRANTS — Services for Earl Donald, 76, are being held today, July 10, at the Grants Church of God, starting at 1 p.m., with burial following at Bluewater Village Cemetary.

Donald died July 6.

Donald lived and worked in the Grants area for 40 years. He was a member of the Grants Church of the Nazarene and was married to his wife for 52 years.

Survivors included wife, Omea Arp; sons, Bruce Arp and Dustin Arp; daughters, Erlynn Thomas and Dana Arp; sisters, Margaret Sattler, Pearl Anderson and Darlene Tunink; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Donations can be made to the American Heart Association.

August C. Rudeau, Jr.

GALLUP — Funeral services for August C. Rudeau, Jr., 78, will be announced at a later date.

Rudeau died July 7 in Albuquerque. He was born Jan. 30, 1922 in Rehoboth.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of the arrangements.

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