Police report raises questions about bishop's injuries

A police report is raising questions about whether Roman Catholic Bishop Donald Pelotte, who grew up in Maine, was injured last week during a fall at his home, as he maintains, or was the victim of a violent assault.

The severity of Pelotte's injuries prompted an emergency room physician, a police officer and the diocese's chancellor to wonder if the 62-year-old bishop may have been attacked.

"He looks like he got beat up," said Deacon Timoteo Lujan, the bishop's assistant.

The bishop has insisted since being discovered July 23 at his residence that he fell down a staircase. He is recovering at a Phoenix hospital.

Sgt. Erin Toadlena-Pablo, a police spokeswoman, said the incident isn't under investigation because of Pelotte's insistence that a fall caused the injuries.

Other than when investigating domestic violence cases, she said police usually accept a victim's statement about an incident. An investigation could begin if new information indicated it was warranted.

The Rev. James Walker, vicar general, urged caution in speculating about what occurred. He said he believes Pelotte will tell as much as he can remember about the incident after he is fully recovered.

"I ask you to please focus on what we know for certain: Bishop was alone in his home and there were no signs of a struggle, forced entry, presence of another person or missing items," Walker said.

Lujan told police he went to check on Pelotte after the bishop didn't report for work, missed an appointment and didn't answer his telephone. Lujan let himself into the locked home and saw blood on the tile floor below a carpeted stairway.

"I was very alarmed," Lujan recalled. "I didn't know what to expect."

The police report says Lujan found Pelotte in his bedroom upstairs. The report says the bishop was "heavily bruised across the face, along the chest area, both arms, the knuckles, the legs and the feet."

Lujan expressed concern that someone may have assaulted the bishop, but Pelotte told him he had fallen down the stairs.

Walker stressed that Pelotte has repeatedly provided that answer.

"Bishop's injuries, although great, are consistent with injuries sustained by falling down a staircase, landing on a ceramic tile floor and possibly hitting the wall, which is all feasible considering the layout of Bishop's staircase and surrounding area," Walker said.

Lujan took Pelotte to a hospital, where an unidentified emergency room physician suspected he had been assaulted and called police.

Officer Edwin Yazzie, dispatched to investigate, made the same evaluation.

"Bishop Pelotte said he had fallen and no one had hit him or beat him up," Yazzie wrote in his report. "I asked Bishop Pelotte again if anybody else came to his residence, or if he had any arguments or any enemies that may have done this to him, and he said no."

Yazzie described "a lot of bruising" to Pelotte's eyes, saying the right eye was swollen shut.

There was bruising on Pelotte's left shoulder, arms, elbows, hands and knuckles, and his legs were bruised and appeared to have been scratched.

Pelotte was ordained a priest in 1972 in Portland, Maine, and arrived in Gallup in 1986 as coadjutor bishop. Pelotte grew up poor in a single-parent household in Waterville and was the first American Indian to become a Roman Catholic bishop.

His twin brother, Dana Pelotte, was ordained a priest in Maine in 1999.

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