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Friday, June 10, 2005

Beating Not Tied to LANL, Police Say

By Adam Rankin And Jeremy Pawloski
Journal Staff Writer
    The early Sunday morning beating of Los Alamos National Laboratory auditor Tommy Hook wasn't related to his status as a federal whistle-blower or the fact that he was scheduled to meet with a congressional investigator this week, police said Thursday.
    "Nothing in this investigation points to the fact that this was retaliation," said Santa Fe deputy police chief Eric Johnson.
    Police said a fight between Hook and three men occurred after Hook struck a pedestrian with his car while leaving the Cheeks topless bar on Cerrillos Road. The beating, which left Hook with a broken jaw, a herniated disk and missing teeth, occurred about 2 a.m. Sunday.
    "A verbal exchange of words occurred after Mr. Hook exited his vehicle, at which time the confrontation escalated into a physical attack," according to a prepared statement released by the Santa Fe police. The FBI also participated in the investigation.
    Hook has maintained that he was pulled from the car as he tried to leave Cheeks after an informant he thought he was going to meet at the strip club failed to show up.
    In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Hook stood by his account and said, "It is going to come down to who is telling the truth." His wife said Thursday evening that Hook had no comment on the police statement.
    A call to Hook's lawyer was not returned.
    Pete Stockton, an investigator with the Project on Government Oversight, which helps to represent government whistle-blowers, said police didn't look for evidence that could link Hook's beating to his whistle-blower status.
    "The bigger issue is was there a connection? We are not arguing there was a connection, but did they look for one?" Stockton said. He maintained that there is more information, such as phone records and the backgrounds of the assailants, that police did not review.
    Santa Fe defense lawyer Doug Couleur, who represents a man Couleur says was involved in the altercation in which Hook was injured, said earlier this week that the beating was "an altercation in the parking lot of a topless bar, nothing more."
    After hearing of Thursday's police statement that the beating had nothing to do with LANL, Couleur said: "I'm glad they got that out of the way."
    No arrests have been made in the case. Police say they are turning all information obtained through the investigation over to the Santa Fe District Attorney's Office for review and determination of what charges might apply.
    Asked whether any charges are being considered against Hook, District Attorney Henry Valdez said once all the information and evidence are forwarded to his office, "we'll look at the potential criminal involvement of all the parties."
    Hook has said he was lured from his White Rock home to Cheeks by a late-night phone call from a supposed informant with information about LANL. He told his wife, who was out of town Saturday night, that while the attackers were beating him, they told him that he had better keep his mouth shut, according to Susan Hook.
    Hook was scheduled to meet with a congressional investigator this week in preparation for a pending hearing later this month on whistle-blowers and employee retaliation at LANL. Hook went ahead with meeting with the investigator Wednesday night.
    Allegations that Hook, who has a pending lawsuit against the University of California-run laboratory, was severely beaten in a possible attempt to prevent him from talking to congressional investigators made national news this week. CNN, CBS, The New York Times, USA Today and other national news outlets all carried stories on Hook's beating.
    Susan Hook told reporters during a Monday news conference that her husband had been in bed at home in White Rock on Saturday night when he received a call around 10:15 p.m. urging him to drive 50 minutes to Cheeks in Santa Fe. She said Hook had thought the caller was, like Hook himself, an unnamed LANL auditor who had information on lab financial fraud.
    In an interview Wednesday, Hook said he had tried to meet with the same auditor on June 3. Susan Hook said that according to her husband the Saturday night caller apologized to Hook for failing to make the June 3 date before suggesting they meet at Cheeks, where neither would likely be recognized.
    Roger Prucino, the lawyer for Cheeks, said Wednesday that Hook arrived at Cheeks about 9:30 p.m., not the much later time in Hook's account. Prucino also supported a dancer's statement that Hook received a $50 lap dance from a waitress while at the club. Hook has denied receiving a lap dance.
    Prucino also said a Cheeks waitress asked Hook, who was drinking light beer, if he wanted a dance, but that Hook declined and said he was waiting for somebody.
    POGO's Stockton said he would like to see the suspects arrested and asked to undergo lie detector tests on whether the beating was over Hook's whistle-blower status or just a bar fight.
    Stockton said he also wants to see a review of telephone records, which could substantiate Hook's story that he was called late Saturday night and that he tried to reach the auditor the day before, leaving him a message.