LANL worker attackedROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
A clandestine meeting at a Santa Fe nightspot late Saturday ended in violence for a Los Alamos man Sunday morning.
Only days before he was scheduled to meet with a congressional investigator to prepare testimony for an upcoming oversight committee hearing, Tommy Hook, a project manager and senior auditor at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was viciously beaten by several assailants, his wife and lawyer said Monday.
Susan Hook, and Bob Rothstein, an attorney representing her husband Tommy Hook in a suit filed against the University of California in early March, said the incident took place after midnight Sunday morning in the parking lot of Cheeks, a topless bar in Santa Fe.
"They left me for dead," Hook told his wife afterward.
The facts of the case are under investigation by the Santa Fe Police Department and the FBI.
Susan Hook and Rothstein said the assault was intended to silence Tommy Hook's testimony.
They were joined at a news conference by Chuck Montano, another laboratory auditor, and co-plaintiff in the civil suit alleging retaliation by LANL managers and UC.
"I don't think the UC would put out a contract," he said, "but they are responsible because they allow whistleblowers to become targets."
Susan Hook said her husband was barely able to speak, audible only by getting very close and asking him to repeat what he was saying.
Rothstein said Tommy Hook had been lured from home, after going to bed Saturday, to meet with an informant who had promised information related to Hook's investigation.
The contact, made through an intermediary described as a "friend," had failed to show for a meeting.
Susan Hook was spending the night in Albuquerque visiting the couple's two sons. She said she had talked to her husband about 9:30 p.m., as he was preparing for bed.
When she saw him next in a secured hospital room at St. Vincent's hospital in Santa Fe, his face was battered with a boot mark still visible on his right jaw and temple.
Hook waited at Cheeks for over an hour, Rothstein said, but then went out to the parking lot to leave.
Based on the victim's description, Rothstein said one attacker was very large. He said there were between four and six people involved.
"They kept telling him to start keeping his mouth shot," said Susan Hook. An employee of the bar was said to have intervened.
Rothstein said the employee had taken down one license plate number, a partial number on another vehicle and a description of a third vehicle used by the attackers. Police and an emergency vehicle were summoned.
Susan Hook said her husband would not have known what kind of place Cheeks is.
"We just don't go to bars," she said. "It wouldn't have crossed his mind."
Susan Hook said the couple's 30th wedding anniversary was on Saturday and they had been saving for a year for a cruise.
Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Eric Johnson said this morning that detectives were following the leads in the case and thought they might have more information available before the end of the day.
He said anybody with information can contact Det. George Ortiz, the investigative officer at 955-5038, or the dispatcher at 428-3710.
LANL and UC issued a joint statement Monday, expressing outrage that a laboratory employee had been assaulted.
A statement said, "Director Kuckuck, the University of California and the laboratory believe that any form of physical violence toward an individual is unacceptable."
Lab spokesman Kevin Roark said today, "Finding out who did this and why is a job for law enforcement. The lab is going to cooperate and participate at any level required, because finding out who and why is as important for us as anyone. This is a job for the cops and no one else."
FBI special agent Bill Elwell, media coordinator for the Albuquerque office, said the bureau had been contacted by Rothstein in the latter part of Sunday.
"We thought it would be prudent to assign an agent to coordinate with the Santa Fe Police Department to determine if there might be something of interest to us," Elwell said, adding that any evidence of a federal crime would be submitted to the U.S. Attorney.
Great!!!