GALLUP — Police searched the Gallup home of Roman Catholic Bishop Donald Pelotte before dawn one morning this week after getting a call from the bishop about intruders who did not want to leave.
Police responded within minutes of getting the call Thursday morning, but they found no one inside, according to an incident report from the McKinley Metropolitan Dispatch Authority.
Pelotte, 62, had just returned to Gallup the week before. He had been out of the state getting medical treatment for traumatic head injuries he suffered in an apparent fall at his home on July 23.
Despite speculation Pelotte might have been assaulted that summer day, he and the rest of the diocese have insisted that he was injured when he fell down the stairs at his home.
According to the report on Thursday's incident, Pelotte offered conflicting information about the people who he said were in his home. At one point, he said one person came to visit and the others also came inside. He also described them as strangers and said they had been there three hours and didn't want to leave.
Parts of the report were deleted. Glendora Orphey, the dispatch center's administration operations manager, said she removed the information because she believed releasing it would have been a violation of Pelotte's privacy rights under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
The Gallup Independent has filed a public records inspection request seeking the full report.
Police Capt. John Allen said he has not spoken with the officers who responded to the bishop's home Thursday and that no police report was filed.
Matt Doyle, a spokesman for the diocese, did not immediately return a phone message left Saturday by The Associated Press. On Friday, he said the diocese would look into the incident.
Chancery officials have been maintaining regular telephone contact with Pelotte since his return. The bishop, who continues to recover from the injuries he sustained this summer, has yet to resume his duties at the diocese.
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