[4] On June 24, 2009, Independent published an article revealing that Gallup mayor Harry Mendoza had been charged in a gang rape in 1948.

In 2011 Mendoza sued the Gallup Independent for false light and in July 2012 a district court judge ruled in the newspaper's favor after a jury failed to reach a verdict.

[5][6] On January 6, 2010, Independent publisher Bob Zollinger and Mendoza got into an altercation in the parking lot of a bank.

Zollinger told a local television station that he never threw a punch and was attacked by Mendoza, who was upset about the publication of articles linking the mayor to a gang rape 60 years ago.

On July 20, 2010, Mendoza pleaded no contest to a charge of voluntarily engaging in a fight in a public place.