Bishop threatened
Police investigating alleged death threat; Diocese says Kolb is suspect

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The Gallup Police Department and the New Mexico State Police confirmed on Tuesday that they are investigating reports of a death threat made against Bishop Donald E. Pelotte, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Gallup.

Although the Gallup Police Department has declined to name any suspects due to the ongoing investigation, the Diocese of Gallup has publicly issued two statements naming a person the diocese believes to have allegedly made the threat.

And the name is a very familiar one: Derek F. Kolb.

On Thursday, Oct. 6 the diocese e-mailed a statement about the threat to a select number of individuals associated with the Gallup Diocese. The Independent did not receive a copy until Monday evening, Oct. 10.

Entitled "Press Release," the statement says: "The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup reports that on October 4, 2005 an unknown person called the Bernalillo County 911 Dispatcher and reported that they had just had a phone conversation with Mr. Derek Kolb of Gallup, New Mexico who claimed to be calling from a cell phone and was on Interstate 40 near Grants on his way to Gallup. In this conversation the unknown caller reported that Mr. Derek Kolb had made a death threat against Bishop Donald E. Pelotte, SSS Bishop of Gallup. Bishop Pelotte and diocesan staff were notified by an officer of the New Mexico State Police."

"The New Mexico State Police indicated that they plan on investigating the matter further," the statement concludes.

Kolb, 30, is the former Catholic seminary student who was charged in October 2004 by Gallup Police with the attempted murder of Sister Margaret Mary Liebst, 82, by putting acid in her cereal, Windex cleaner in her food and beverages, and tampering with her insulin.

According to the police report, Kolb confessed to the acts and explained he was jealous of the attention Liebst was getting from Father Thomas Maikowski, 57, Liebst's longtime caretaker. As detailed in the lengthy police report, Maikowski was Kolb's close friend, sometime employer, and sometime housemate. Both Maikowski and Kolb denied to police that they had a sexual relationship. Police and court records indicate Kolb has a history of mental health problems.

After Kolb was charged with attempted murder, Maikowski resigned from a number of positions in the Gallup Diocese, including being director of the Department of Education, principal of St. Francis Elementary, and a member of the bishop's Diocesan Consultors; however, he continues to work in the diocese.

Less than six months ago, the attempted murder charge was dropped, and Kolb pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of harassment. Deputy District Attorney Michael E. Calligan said authorities were never able to corroborate Kolb's confession to police with physical evidence, they weren't sure which incidents took place in McKinley County, and Liebst "literally entreated" the district attorney's office not to prosecute.

As part of the plea agreement of May 18, 2005, Kolb was ordered to pay $500 restitution to a Catholic charity and serve a one-year probation term. At the time, Steven F. Seeger, Kolb's defense attorney, said Kolb felt a "tremendous amount of regret and remorse" for the damage his actions caused Maikowski, Liebst, the Catholic Church, and Bishop Pelotte.

911 call
According to the Bernalillo County 911 Dispatch recording of the initial 911 call, at least one detail in the diocese's statement is not entirely accurate. The dispatch office played the very brief recording twice for The Independent over the telephone.

At 10:19 p.m. on Oct. 4, the Bernalillo dispatcher received a 911 call and asked the caller if they were calling about an emergency. The caller, who sounds to be male, said it was an emergency, but that the emergency was in Gallup, not Albuquerque.

The caller then agreed to be transferred to a Gallup dispatch office, which turned out to be Gallup's New Mexico State Police office. That was the end of the Bernalillo dispatcher's conversation with the caller.

According to Sgt. Ted Collins of the New Mexico State Police, the Gallup office did receive the transferred call at 10:20 p.m. Because the report was still being processed, said Collins, he could not release information about the 911 call. Collins said The Independent would have to request a copy of the incident report from the Santa Fe Records Bureau.

"This is an ongoing investigation with the Gallup Police Department," Collins added.

Dot Teso, of the Diocese of Gallup, confirmed that diocesan officials were notified of the alleged threat on Wednesday, Oct. 5, and that they filed a report with the Gallup Police Department on Thursday, Oct. 6.

Teso, the executive director of the Catholic People's Foundation, said she was acting as a consultant to the diocese by assisting as a diocesan spokesperson.

Teso e-mailed the following statement (published here with original wording and punctuation) to the newspaper: "The Bishop is taking this threat seriously ... and is first and foremost concern for the safety of his staff and any innocent person who could be affected from this situation ... and yes he is human and therefore concerned about his own personal safety as well. The Bishop has ordered safety precautions for his staff and is taking similar precautions for his own protection (the Diocese will not comment on these safety measures for obvious reasons)."

Teso's statement concludes: "The Bishop is praying for and has ask for all to pray for Mr. Derek Kolb and his family, and for the continued safety of Bishop Pelotte's staff."

Gallup police report
Detective Erin Toadlena-Pablo, a spokesperson for the Gallup Police Department, confirmed that Detective Juan Reyes of the Gallup Police is conducting an investigation. No charges have been filed, she said, and the Gallup Police will not release the names of any suspects, due to the ongoing investigation.

Toadlena-Pablo did release a report written by Officer Monty Yazzie with what appears to be one or two names blacked out throughout the report.

The report, which details Yazzie's Oct. 10 conversation with Detective Reyes about the threat, does not seem to correspond closely to the information outlined by the two statements issued by the Diocese of Gallup, nor by the information provided by the Bernalillo County 911 Dispatch or the New Mexico State Police.

Instead, it contains a number of statements about a phone call received by "an unknown female" on Oct. 4 and a subsequent conversation between that unknown female and a woman named Vera (with an unknown last name).

"The unknown female who received the call from (blacked out name) advised Vera that (blacked out name) was enroute from Grants and was on his way to Gallup to kill the Bishop Donald Pellotte. Vera was afraid and later advised Donald Pellotte that (blacked out name) was enroute to Gallup to kill him," the report states.

The Independent did leave a message on the answering machine belonging to Father Thomas Maikowski and Sister Margaret Mary Liebst, asking for comment. The call was not returned.

The Independent's call to Derek Kolb's cellular phone also was not returned, and the newspaper learned Kolb is no longer employed at the downtown restaurant where he most recently worked as a waiter.

According to Kolb's file in Magistrate Court, Kolb's probation for the harassment charge runs through May 17, 2006. His address in the file, most recently recorded as Sept. 20, 2005, is still listed as an apartment in downtown Gallup.

— Reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola can be contacted at (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or ehardinburrola@yahoo.com.