NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal
By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Thursday, October 8th, 2015
A bankruptcy judge on Wednesday declined to order a new sale of properties belonging to the Diocese of Gallup even though auctioneers made an “error in judgment” by turning away a newspaper reporter and a graduate student from what had been billed as a public auction last month in Albuquerque.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma said that ordering a new auction could harm victims of sexual abuse by priests by reducing the money available to settle the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
Auctions held last month in Albuquerque and Phoenix netted the diocese about $160,000 after fees were paid to real estate brokers handling the sales. As of June 30, legal and professional costs in the case had mounted to more than $2.6 million. Ordering a new auction “would cost money,” Thuma said at the end of a hearing in Albuquerque. “There is a risk that ordering a new auction would harm the creditors, who are abuse victims.”
Thuma scheduled the hearing last week after Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola, a reporter for the Gallup Independent, and Meredith Edelman, a doctoral candidate, sent him letters saying they had been barred from a Sept. 19 auction in Albuquerque.
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