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	Gallup Bishop to Met with Diocese about Intruder Incident Associated Press, carried in Examiner October 1, 2007 http://www.examiner.com/a-966469~Gallup_bishop_to_met_with_diocese_about_intruder_incident.html GALLUP, N.M. — Officials with the Diocese of Gallup plan to meet with Roman Catholic Bishop Donald Pelotte about an incident last week in which he told police that intruders were in his home. Pelotte, 62, recently returned to Gallup. He received medical care in Phoenix, Houston and at a private residence in Florida for traumatic head injuries he suffered in an apparent fall at his home on July 23. Despite speculation he 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. Pelotte called police before dawn last Thursday, reporting that there were four intruders inside who did not want to leave. Police responded within minutes, but they found no one. According to a police report, the bishop told officers that one male and three females were running through the home, wearing costumes and masks. He said the intruders were between 3 and 5 feet tall. Pelotte also told officers that at one point, one of the female intruders "grabbed an ornament from the wall of the residence and put it on her face using it as a mask and had curled up into a ball and laid down on the wood pile near the fireplace," the report stated. The bishop said the intruders had been in his home for about three hours and that he tried to communicate with them throughout the morning and finally decided to call police to scare them away, the report stated. Police searched the neighborhood but found no one, nor did they find any tracks around Pelotte's home or signs of forced entry. When the officers returned, Pelotte told them one of the intruders had crawled into the fireplace and tried to hide. But police said no one was in the fireplace. Matt Doyle, a spokesman for the diocese, said Monday he had read through the report once. "There's a lot here, and for me to go on about the speculating of the contents of it is not going to serve any purpose," he told The Associated Press. "We just need some time to digest this." Doyle said church officials will review the report and talk with Pelotte. "Obviously, he has his side of the story, too," Doyle said. Diocese officials have been in contact with Pelotte on a daily basis, but Doyle declined to provide any details about the bishop's health. Pelotte has had limited duties and has been working from home since he returned to Gallup in September. Pelotte "has talked with several people in the diocese, and they have had exchanges on the telephone that seem to be routine," Doyle said. Police asked Pelotte after last week's incident whether he was taking any medication or suffered from any head injury or any type of mental illness. Pelotte said he wasn't taking medication and didn't suffer from metal illness, but that he had a head injury over the summer. Officers asked Pelotte if he needed medical attention but he said he would be OK, the report stated.
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