Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 122, No. 277 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
November 19, 2013
NMMI Alumni Association loses name, logos JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
The ousted New Mexico Military Institute’s Alumni Association was dealt a crucial blow Monday when a judge ordered the embattled group to immediately stop using the Institute’s name, logos and crest. Eddy County Judge Jane Shuler -Gray ruled against the Association as part of a lawsuit filed by NMMI against its former alumni fundraising organization. NMMI’s attorney, Richard Olson of Hinkle, Hensley, Shanor and Martin, said the decision was important. Olson argued during the hearing in October that the Association’s continued use of the school’s name, logos and marks violated its now-terminated contract and caused irreparable harm to the Institute. “We think it’s important,” Olson said. “It enjoins them from using
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the name, logos and marks, as they contracted to do. It’s significant. It is enforcing a critical and significant portion of the contract.” The Association’s attorney, Jeffery Dahl, said his clients would be considering their options following the ruling. “We don’t have any comment,” Dahl said. “We’re going to be looking at our options and trying to figure out what our course of action is going to be from this point forward.” John Phinizy, president of the Association, has led the charge to fight NMMI in court. The Association was banished from school property in April but decided to continue operating and raising funds in the school’s name. NMMI filed a lawsuit June 10, asking the court to seize some $5 million in funds held by the Association and its operating account, ban the group from representing
the school and ordering the Association to stop using any Institute logos, trademarks or images. The two parties will meet again next week to schedule future hearings in the case. Phinizy, a lawyer and assistant district attorney in Chaves County, issued a statement Monday through a publicity representative at The Waite Company. “The Institute and the Association still have a long way to go in hammering out its future relationship,” Phinizy wrote. “This is a marathon and not a sprint.” NMMI asked the court to immediately move to stop the Association from using its name and logos last month to prevent further harm. Both sides focused on the agreement that once bound them together. During the hearing, the Association argued that NMMI’s Superintendent, Major Gen. Jerry Grizzle, “strong-armed” its board members into signing a memoran-
TUESDAY
dum of agreement, or contract, in March 2012. Shuler-Gray found the Association and the Institute discussed the contract several times. “The Association had an opportunity to bargain for the terms and provisions of the (agreement) and actually did bargain for the terms,” Shuler-Gray wrote. In the final order, Shuler-Gray found that the agreement was a valid and enforceable contract between the Institute and the Association. Both parties negotiated and discussed the terms of the agreement through emails, Shuler-Gray found. The final board decision was approved in a split vote, when six members voted in favor of it and four were against it. NMMI’s Board of Regents terminated this contract in April after the Association failed to resolve its long-running financial issues. Once terminated, the agreement mandated that the Associa-
tion no longer use the name “New Mexico Military Institute” in its corporate title or be allowed to use any of the Institute’s intellectual property rights. The Institute terminated the agreement in accordance with the relevant contract conditions, Shuler-Gray ruled. “As a result, the Association is no longer permitted to use the name ‘New Mexico Military institute,’ ‘NMMI,’ the Crest, the Stack logo, and the Rifle, Cannon, and Saber Coat of Arms, or any other marks, logos or intellectual property of the Institute,” Shuler-Gray ordered. She also found that “NMMI,” the “Rifle, Cannon and Saber Coat of Arms,” the “Crest” and the “NMMI Stack” logo were valid and legally protectable marks of the Institute. The school’s name is also reserved under the laws of New Mexico as a provided by the New Mexico Constitution, she ruled.
Another fire under investigation Ruling made in
Towler death JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Jessica Palmer Photo
The fire in the 800 block of East Fifth Street occurred near midnight on Sunday. According to Roswell Fire Chief Chad Hamill, the family barely escaped with their lives, saved by a neighbor’s dog who alerted their neighbors to the fire. The fire spread quickly from the car and garage into the house destroying most of the inside of the home.
JESSICA PALMER ROSWELL STAFF WRITER The
Roswell
Police
Department has had four cases of reported arson from Nov. 2 though Friday, Nov 15. The most recent occurred around
midnight in the 800 block of East Fifth Street Sunday. Roswell Fire Chief Chad Hamill said: “The last fire almost left a fami-
ly dead when the car that was deliberately ignited See ARSON, Page A2
District Attorney Janetta Hicks ruled that no criminal charges would be filed against the officers who were involved in the Cody Towler in-custody death. The letter dated Nov. 13 said: “This office declines prosecution at this time. ... (After) review of the thorough investigation conducted by agents of the New Mexico State Police, Chaves County Sheriff’s Office and Roswell Police Department.” Towler died after police responded to disorderly subject calls in the 1600 block of South Union Avenue on Feb. 4. The first officer arrived at the scene around 2:03 a.m. Towler was pronounced dead at 3:01 a.m. by a representative of the Office of the Medical Investigatory. Hicks’ letter cited Towler’s ongoing medical problems, including depression, high blood pressure and seizures and near toxic levels of methamphetamines in the blood at the time of the incident as contributing factors in the death. She quoted the OMI report released on Aug. 8 which listed excited delirium as the cause of death “in which an autopsy fails to reveal sufficient trauma or natural disease to explain the death.” She noted that excited delirium is officially recognized as a unique syndrome by medical examiners and the American College of Emergency Physicians. She also pointed out that “A finding of homicide does not equate to murder.” Hicks called it a tragedy when any young man dies and
Soldier: Retired Minneapolis man FBI seeks help in locating criminal ordered Nazi-led attack in 1944
AP Photo
The June 3, 1944, photo provided by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, shows Heinrich Himmler, SS Reichsfuehrer-SS, head of the Gestapo and the Waffen-SS, and Minister of the Interior of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945, center, reviewing troops of the Galician SS-Volunteer Infantry Division.
BERLIN (AP) — A retired Minnesota carpenter, shown in a June investigation to be a former commander in a Nazi SS-led unit, ordered his men to attack a Polish village that was razed to the ground, according to testimony newly uncovered by The Associated Press. The account of the massacre that killed dozens of women and children contradicts statements by the man’s family that he
was never at the scene of the 1944 bloodshed. The June story prompted official investigations in both Poland and Germany. On Monday, the prosecutor leading Germany’s probe revealed to the AP that he has decided to recommend that state prosecutors pursue
HIGH 73 LOW 39
TODAY’S FORECAST
See NAZI, Page A3
• RUTH GILBERT • BETTY KENNEDY
See TOWLER, Page A3
several tattoos on his arms, including skulls, a cross and lightning bolts. Maley may be driving an olive green Land Rover, Discovery Model, New Mexico license MSG-233. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Maley last Wednesday on charges of distribution of methamphetamine and aiding and abetting. The FBI consider him armed and dangerous. Law enforcement attempted to serve FBI Photo the arrest warrant at Matthew Duke Maley, 46, is wanted by the FBI on drug charges Maley’s residence in and aiding and abetting. This picture taken in August shows Tucson on Sunday, him with his Land Rover, Discovery Model, New Mexico license but he was not MSG-233. Anyone with information should contact the FBI in there. Maley has ties to Albuquerque at 505-889-1300 or go to their website, tips://tips.fbi.gov. Las Cruces and Albuquerque; DenThe FBI is asking for the public’s help ver; Tucson; Salinas, Calif.; and El Paso, in locating Matthew Duke Maley, 46, of Texas. Tucson, Ariz., who is wanted on federal Anyone who sees Maley or knows his drug charges. Maley has ties to New whereabouts should not approach him, Mexico, California, Colorado, Texas and but should instead contact the AlbuNevada, besides Arizona. He is described as a white male, 6 querque FBI at 505-889-1300 (24 feet, 1 inch tall, between 180 and 190 hours) or submit a tip online at pounds, bald, with hazel eyes. He has https://tips.fbi.gov.
• CALVIN LASITER • DAYL MARY WILSON
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B4
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2 HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2 NATION ..................A6
OPINION .................A4 SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8