Alleged victim 'more worried than ever' by trader's release

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Now that Steve Coleman is out of jail, the question is just how much of a danger is he to the community?

His attorney, Sigmund Bloom, said Tuesday that all of this talk in the media about his client being a menace to the community has been blown way out of proportion.

In the last week, several people including an FBI agent and a McKinley County deputy sheriff testified in court that they felt Coleman should remain in jail for the safety of the community.

And one of Coleman's alleged victims, while refusing to allow his name to be used because Coleman was now out, said he was "more worried than ever" that Coleman would retaliate against him for speaking out.

Officials at Connections, the agency Coleman is charged with trying to burn down, also took notice of Coleman's release and wondered if strange phone calls that were placed to the agency Tuesday afternoon had anything to do with his release.

All of this has led Bloom to wonder just what people were reacting to.

Bloom's position is that the courts have continually let people out of jail who pose a greater threat to the community than Coleman.

"What about people who have three, four or five DWIs already?" he asked. "Aren't they greater threats to the community?"

How much of a threat, he asked, is a person whose only felony conviction several years ago was for selling feathers.

"There's no violence there," Bloom said, adding that it wasn't as if Coleman was charged with going to the nest and tearing the eagle's feathers off.

But in recent weeks, the charges have gotten more violent: Attempting to set a fire at Connections, firing at a home owned by a deputy sheriff who arrested him for DWI and threatening a man with a gun.

Bloom pointed out that in the suspected arson and firing on a cop's home, no one was home at the time.

As for the charge filed by Joe Diaz that Coleman threatened him with a gun and would later come to Home Depot where he worked and conduct a stare down contest, Bloom pointed out that the gun threat occurred 18 months ago and even the police apparently had credibility problems with it because no charges were filed until last week.

Coleman so far has declined to discuss the charges and Bloom said his client was told to reply "no comment" to any question that was asked of him by the press or public. "(Making comments on Coleman's behalf) is what I am paid to do," Bloom said.

Speaking for Coleman, Bloom said his client "categorically denied any involvement in any of these incidents" and thinks that the charges placed against him are nothing more than a "witchhunt of the first order."

Officials at Connections said Tuesday that beginning about 1 p.m. shortly after Coleman was released from jail someone made calls to the social service agency, breathing heavily and then hanging up.

Bloom said it doesn't make any sense for Coleman to be behind this. "What sense is it that someone would jeopardize the $100,000 he just paid to be released by doing something like this within the first hour."

He also downplayed statements made by local FBI agent Trent Pederson, who said he felt that Coleman was a "threat to the community" and similar statements that have been made by Tom Mumford, a McKinley County deputy sheriff who said he knew of a partner of a state police officer who was so worried about Coleman that he laid bullet-proof vests over his children at night when they went to sleep.

Bloom said there is no evidence that Coleman ever threatened or did anything to a state police officer and that this was again an over-reaction to Coleman's arrest.

There have also been reports that business at the Nugget Gallery, the Indian arts and crafts store owned by Coleman, has been doing well because of people who want to show their support for Coleman for going to their aid in the past when they needed it.

In the court proceedings last week, a number of questions were raised about the medications that Coleman was taking and whether any aberrant behavior may have been caused by him going off the medication.

Bloom said he didn't want to get into details about the medications that Coleman was taking because the press was covering the court proceedings, but he stressed that if Coleman were released, his family membershave already agreed to do what they can to make sure that not only the family remains safe, but the community is safe as well.

If anything happens that concerns any of the family members about Coleman's condition including not taking his medications or the safety of anyone in the community, Bloom said, "family members have assured me that they would inform me immediately."