https://www.abqjournal.com/1032896/exlanl-official-found-dead-in-tucson.html
July 14, 2017 at 2:17 PM
Wow this is just some crazy stuff, still think that story about being beat up at Cheeks in 2005 was really retaliation against a whistle blower? Also that Montano guy sounds like pure poison. You have to think that maybe the personal downhill spiral of Hook may have been more connected to meeting Montano rather than working at LANL. Pretty dam sad.
July 14, 2017 at 2:17 PM
Wow this is just some crazy stuff, still think that story about being beat up at Cheeks in 2005 was really retaliation against a whistle blower? Also that Montano guy sounds like pure poison. You have to think that maybe the personal downhill spiral of Hook may have been more connected to meeting Montano rather than working at LANL. Pretty dam sad.
Comments
Hmmm, is there is a pattern somewhere?
Hook, a former LANL official who was a plaintiff in a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the University of California, which used to run LANL on its own, was found unconscious in a Tucson strip club bathroom just before 1 a.m. June 25 with signs of trauma and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In June 2005, an incident at another strip club – Cheeks on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe – briefly put Hook in the national spotlight. But Santa Fe police and the District Attorney’s Office later determined that Hook’s severe beating had nothing to do with anything at LANL and said that Hook got into a fight after he backed into a pedestrian while leaving the Cheeks parking lot. A lawyer for Cheeks also said that a dancer maintained that Hook paid for a $50 lap dance that night, although Hook and his wife continued to dispute that.
In the Hooks’ 2008 divorce documents, Susan Hook claimed that Tommy was spending a large portion of their money on trips to casinos and gentlemen’s clubs.
What a loser. Could not tell the truth about being at a strip club to his wife so he makes up a story about the Lab.
I make no judgment on things Hook liked to do on his own time. He may have had a point with how he was treated by LANL and he certainly did not deserve to murdered. What we can fault him for was the made up Cheeks story blaming LANL, it was clearly nonsense. Montano also pushed that narrative at the time and even keeps pushing it to this very day in his latest drivel "Los Alamos: Secret Colony, Hidden Truths: A Whistleblower’s Diary"
"Those who know Montaño’s story will recall the matter of Tommy Hook, also an auditor and colleague at the lab. One night, Tommy Hook was beaten up badly in the parking lot of “Cheek’s” a seedy nightspot in Santa Fe. He claimed that he was there to meet an unknown person. The man said he would provide information related to Hook’s procurement investigations.
Afterward, Hook charged that the perpetrators threatened him if he revealed anything more about the procurement investigations. Montaño took pictures of Hook’s battered face and shared them with the press. Later discrepancies crept into Hook’s story and, although two men were sentenced for the crime, there was never any evidence that linked them to the lab or the government or any of the suspects in the procurement scandal at LANL. Loyal to his friend, Montaño leaves the judgement open."
There is no judgement to leave open. These guys gave whistleblowers a bad name and
potentially hurt future whistleblowers from coming forward.
Arizona
Strip clubs
Lies
Violence
Death
Did I miss anything?
He was one of the unfortunate employees that Director Pete Nanos unfairly & utterly destroyed for doing nothing wrong.
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Dec 18, 2008
Former LANL Technician Sues Over Flap
Written by Bruce Daniels - ABQnewsSeeker
HEADLINE: Man was blamed four years ago for losing classified computer disks that never existed.
Former Los Alamos National Laboratory technician John Horne blamed four years ago for the reported disappearance of two classified computer disks that were later determined never to have existed has sued the lab's operator and others over the flap, The New Mexican reported.
The complaint alleging breach of contract, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress was filed this week in state District Court seeking unspecified damages from Los Alamos National Security, a private firm that operates the lab for the U.S. Department of Energy; former LANL Director George "Pete" Nanos and former DX Division leader Kevin Jones, The New Mexican reported.
"It's demoralizing to be held up as a villain when you know you did nothing wrong," Horne said in a news release. "Nothing can repair the damage they have done."
lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/2008/12/former-lanl-technician-sues-over-flap.html
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My understanding is that Horne lost his case. The lab's legal department wore him down with their ability to afford endless litigation. Horne was a swell guy who didn't deserve to be treated so poorly by LANL. Same goes for his partner and team leader in this "missing disk" fiasco that never happened, Todd Kauppila, who also died an early death probably from stress. It's my understanding that Kauppila's wife also tried to sue the lab but was unable to find any success. The whole "missing disk" mess was one ugly story which many of the lab officials involved in would just as soon never be mentioned again.
July 16, 2017 at 6:44 PM
OMG, The Montano book. Now this is a totally unbiased source.
Is there any proof Hood endured workplace abuse? Maybe he should have not blamed LANL for him
getting beat up. It is not clear that Hook ever had a case.
"But there will always be the stupid among us, who see whistleblower as the problem and their abuse, by managers, a legitimate management tool."
Oh give it a break, no one believes this. Everyone agrees that the whistle blower program is a legitimate and important thing to to have. However it should also be acknowledged that
such programs can also be abused by those wishing to take advantage of the system and one would have to be very stupid not to believe this. I doubt Montano ever gave a dame about Hook or anybody else for that matter but that is just my opinion.
July 16, 2017 at 1:55 PM
Are you sure about this I thought that heard that some of the people in the Nanos case did get win some sort of litigation or at least a payout. Does anybody know for sure?
After the funeral are the attendees going to go to a stripe club to celebrate Tommy Hooks life?