4 Jurors Support Paper In Libel

Ex-mayor Lawyers Seeking Mistrial

A McKinley County jury appeared to hand a victory to the Gallup Independent on Monday when at least four of the six jurors found that the newspaper did not knowingly publish false statements about former Gallup Mayor Harry Mendoza.

But the six-person jury also found that the Gallup Independent published false statements about Mendoza by calling him a “gang rapist” and alleging that he lied by denying involvement in the 1948 rape of a 16-year-old girl.

Disagreement arose after attorneys for Mendoza asked District Court Judge Louis DePauli to poll jurors, revealing that only four of the six jurors clearly agreed with the key element of the verdict, said Pat Rogers, an attorney representing the Gallup Independent and its publisher, Bob Zollinger.

Court rules require that at least five jurors agree on the verdict, prompting attorneys for Mendoza to ask for a mistrial, Rogers said.

DePauli ordered jurors to reconvene today in an attempt to sort out the verdict, Rogers said.

Martin Esquivel, an attorney for Mendoza, said he could

not discuss the case Monday because the outcome had not been resolved.

Mendoza was among seven Gallup youths arrested and charged in the attack but was not tried or convicted. A contemporary news account of the 1949 trial reported that Mendoza enlisted in the Army before the trial began.

Mendoza, 80, denies involvement in the attack and claims the Gallup Independent published editorials falsely accusing him of rape.

To win his case, Mendoza is required to prove that the Gallup Independent published false statements that Zollinger and other newspaper personnel knew were false.

Sam Bregman, an Albuquerque attorney representing Mendoza, told jurors in closing arguments on Friday that the Gallup Independent and Zollinger were “obsessed with destroying Harry Mendoza” and published at least 15 editorials accusing him of involvement in the attack, even though Mendoza was never tried or convicted.

George McFall, an attorney for Zollinger and the newspaper, told jurors that evidence linking Mendoza to the attack, including court and jail records and 1948 news accounts, raised reasonable questions about Mendoza’s fitness to serve as mayor.