What Happened To Whistleblower?

Just what happened to Los Alamos lab whistleblower Tommy Hook outside a Santa Fe topless bar?

Hook, who was scheduled to testify before Congress this month, said he was savagely beaten by men who warned him to keep his mouth shut.

But news reports suggest that Hook was seen drinking and dancing prior to an altercation in the parking lot outside the bar that may have started when Hook nearly backed into a patron with his car.

A lawyer representing one of the men involved in the fracas told the Albuquerque Journal that the dispute that nothing to do with the nuclear research laboratory.

"This was an altercation in the parking lot of a topless bar, nothing more," attorney Doug Couleur told the newspaper. "This has absolutely nothing to do with Hook's employment, his witness status, his employment status, or any of that."

Hook, 52, suffered a fractured jaw, a back injury and other injuries in the beating early Sunday. He was released Tuesday evening, a hospital spokesman said.

Jeanette McCalip, a dancer at the bar, told the Journal on Tuesday that she recognized Hook as the man who got a lap dance from a waitress the night of the beating. She said she saw him later outside the club, lying on the ground.

But Robert Rothstein, a lawyer representing Hook, said that his own investigation of the incident suggested that Hook was quiet and well behaved while at the club.

"We've had a private investigator who interviewed the manager, the bartender and two security guards," Rothstein said. "All four of them confirmed that Tommy sat at the bar, he was drinking light beer, didn't have any interactions with the girls who were dancing there."

Rothstein said he also heard reports that the beating stemmed from an altercation in the parking lot and possibly Hook backed his car into someone. But Rothstein said that story hasn't been confirmed.

Hook, an auditor and 15-year lab veteran, has a pending lawsuit against the University of California, which manages the Los Alamos lab, alleging whistleblower retaliation. He had been preparing to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Santa Fe Police Deputy Chief Eric Johnson said the beating is under investigation, and officers were trying to determine whether the attack was related to Hook's position at the lab. FBI spokesman Bill Elwell said the agency is conducting a preliminary inquiry, but so far the case is "an attack on a private citizen."