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Friday, February 05, 2010
Mayor of Gallup To Be Charged After Fistfight
Journal Staff Report
Gallup Mayor Harry Mendoza, 78, is expected to be charged today with battery and assault in connection with an alleged fistfight between him and the publisher of the Gallup Independent newspaper.
Ninth Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler said his office would be filing a criminal complaint with the charges this morning in Magistrate Court in Gallup.
Mendoza and publisher Bob Zollinger, 59, both claim the other started the Jan. 6 fight outside a Gallup bank.
The fight was captured on the bank's surveillance video, which shows the two men hitting and chasing each other.
Mendoza faces up to 364 days in jail on the battery charge and up to 182 days in jail on the assault charge, Chandler said. Both charges are misdemeanors.
Mendoza also faces possible fines on each of the charges.
Eleventh Judicial District Attorney Karl Gillson, whose office represents San Juan and McKinley counties, faced a conflict of interest because Mendoza oversees the Gallup Police Department, which Gillson's office contacts daily. Gillson turned the case over to Chandler's office, which handles issues in Curry and Roosevelt counties.
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