Lundstrom disputes Jeff account of encounter
By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK, March 5, 2010
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(Times photos)
Lundstrom (above) and Jeff (below).
In her first statement to the Navajo Times since accusing a colleague of "slugging" her in the arm during a dispute, New Mexico State Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, said she asked New Mexico State Police to withdraw her complaint against state Rep. Sandra Jeff, D-Crownpoint, at the request of Ben Lujan Sr., speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives.
Lundstrom said Lujan issued a press release about his request to her and she provided a copy of the release, dated Dec. 18, 2009, to the Navajo Times.
That was on Feb. 10.
At press time on March 3, Lujan had not confirmed that he issued the press release, which was not on official letterhead.
On Dec. 9, a state police investigation found that evidence did not support Lundstrom's allegation that Jeff had hit or jabbed her in the arm three times on Dec. 4.
Lundstrom still maintains that Jeff "slugged" her and called her a "slimy snake" and a "liar."
"At a minimum, I expect an apology from her," Lundstrom said.
Police stated in their investigation that a surveillance camera recorded the two women apparently engaged in conversation on Dec. 4 in the Roundhouse, but the recording did not show any physical action by either woman.
Lundstrom said the legislative counsel services told her that the cameras in the Roundhouse swivel, sweeping across an area and recording activity in different areas at different times.
The camera showed the two women standing in front of elevators, but Lundstrom said there was no camera in the elevator area where Jeff hit her in the arm.
Lundstrom said she decided to drop her complaint because of Lujan's request and the lack of evidence to back up her statement.
But she said Jeff's accusation that she called Jeff a "stupid Navajo" was "slanderous" and "hitting below the belt."
"It is also unfortunate Ms. Jeff chooses to fabricate the facts, especially the negative comment attributed to me about her being a Navajo," Lundstrom emphasized. "I have eight Navajo stepchildren. How sad she took that negative approach. It hurt all of them to see this in the newspaper.
"She knows the truth about what she did to me and I feel that is why she had to hire a high-powered criminal attorney," Lundstrom added, referring to Jeff's attorney, Sam Bregman of Albuquerque. "She should show up to the meetings that the speaker (Lujan) has tried to set up to resolve this issue.
"I have a good record with the Navajo constituents and I feel it must be some form of jealously she holds against me," she said. "I just want to get to the business of the people."
Lundstrom also took issue with statements by Bregman that she waited three days to file her complaint against Jeff and also drove from Santa Fe, where the alleged assault occurred, to Gallup before contacting state police.
She said that immediately after Jeff hit her in the arm and called her names, she reported the incident to the chief clerk of the House.
In a telephone interview on March 5, Chief Clerk Steven Arias confirmed that Lundstrom reported the "incident" to him.
Arias declined to talk about what Lundstrom told him because it was "confidential."
He added, "As far as I know the entire situation has not been pursued."
"I was very upset," Lundstrom remembered. "I felt too upset to go back into the Indian Affairs Committee room. I took it to the speaker but he was in a meeting."
She said that a couple of hours after the altercation with Jeff she was on her way back to Gallup and called the state police office there.
But the state police were closing up early to help with the annual Zuni Shalako, Lundstrom said, and so she agreed to go in the following Monday, Dec.
7, to lodge her complaint.
She said she would contact the Gallup state police and have them call the Navajo Times to verify that she called them Dec. 4 and agreed to come in on Dec.
7 to sign her statement.
At press time on March 3, the state police had not contacted the Navajo Times to confirm her call on Dec. 4.
Lundstrom said the reason for Jeff's anger towards her was that the Crownpoint legislator did not agree with the uranium-related bill that she and state Sen. Lynda Lovejoy, D-Crownpoint, were co-sponsoring. Asked to specify what Jeff objected to, Lundstrom was vague.
She noted that although her district has no uranium mining and that Jeff's district does, Lujan appointed her to co-chair the Uranium Legacy Committee with Lovejoy in May 2009.
Lundstrom said that when she tried to explain what she and Lovejoy were doing with the bill, Jeff "immediately blasted Sen. Lovejoy and called her a blithering idiot."
"When I rolled my eyes at her, she got mad and called me names," Lundstrom added.
Asked if she and Lovejoy had invited Jeff to take part in their meetings, Lundstrom said no, but the meetings were open to the public. She never saw Jeff at any of the meetings, she said.
Lundstrom noted that she grew up half a mile from Homestake Mining Corp.'s uranium mill and that the mill wastes have contaminated the water in Milan, N.M., her hometown.
The bill she and Lovejoy wrote asks for a state study on the impact of heavy metals or uranium on the health of New Mexicans.
Lundstrom said health providers do not collect consistent information in health records regarding patients, especially elders, who were uranium miners or millers or spouses and family members of those miners and millers.
And she said health records should also contain information about where patients are living, such as Milan and Crownpoint and other communities where there were uranium mines and mills.
Lundstrom said she asked the Indian Affairs Committee to endorse the uranium legacy bill but they voted it down because, "I didn't bring it up earlier and they needed more time to think about it."
(3 out of 10)
everybodies mouth is lined with this notion that they can not be trusted. So I'm wondering how this rex fellow is going to be trusted. anyway good luck CD's
So who are some names to write-in?