A longtime Española towing company owner recently fined by the state Public Regulation Commission says the case against him got worse after former Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. asked him for help getting a $500 loan to pay an attorney.

Robert Seeds said he didn't respond to Block's requests, according to documents filed with the PRC this week.

Seeds said he had previously given a $200 loan to Block, whom he has known for years.

The PRC last week announced it had fined Robert Seeds Towing Services $15,000, saying the company broke four state and commission rules after a nonconsensual tow late in 2010. The agency said the company then bought the towed vehicle at an auction after its owner was intentionally kept from recovering it. Seeds has denied any wrongdoing in that case and said he worked to contact the owner, as is required.

Seeds said the PRC did not contact him about the hearing to discuss fining him in the matter, which he said he would have attended.

In the recent filings, Seeds also said a staff member harassed him and threatened to beat him up.

"I do not believe, that under the current circumstances, I will be granted a fair investigation or hearing in this matter, and I do not believe that I will be afforded my constitutional right to due process by the Public Regulatory [sic] Commission," Seeds said in an affidavit that is part of the filing.

In it, Seeds also said that the PRC on Jan. 14 notified him he was being fined, and that a hearing had been held on the matter. Although he was aware of the case, that was the first time he had heard anything about the hearing to discuss fines, he said. He has said the letter also threatened to take away his business permits.

"Throughout this case, the Public Regulatory Commission has failed to notify me of hearings, and has filed false affidavits of service," Seeds said.

Arthur Bishop, spokesman for the PRC, said Seeds may be referring to the public hearing at which the total fines were decided. He said there is no requirement that the PRC notify someone that a case involving them is on the agenda for a regular open meeting. He said the PRC has taken the proper steps to notify Seeds of hearings in the case.

The PRC also has provided documents showing that staffers assigned to the case worked to accommodate Seeds' schedule for a hearing.

Seeds said he wasn't notified about a hearing in March 2011, either, but found out about it on his own and attended. He also attended a May hearing. Another hearing was supposed to be set after that, but Seeds said he was never notified of its date after it was scheduled on a holiday and had to be reset.

In the meantime, Block started asking Seeds for help getting money, he said in the filing.

"I felt this was inappropriate and did not respond," said Seeds, an Española city councilor. He provided a copy of a text message he said he received from Block in May 2011.

It said: "Robert, this is Jerome. Do you have any contacts at a bank in ESP that can help out with a small loan quickly? I need to pay my attorney 500 bucks today and wont have the cash until Friday. Maybe its inappropriate to ask. Sorry if I offended you. Im just nervous."

Block, who resigned from the PRC after being questioned about charges to a state-issued gasoline card, has admitted to a prescription-drug addiction. He was jailed Dec. 13 after repeatedly violating conditions of a court-supervised drug-treatment program but released in late December after a $1,000 cash payment on a $10,000 bond. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday.

Seeds said in an interview that on an earlier occasion, he had let Block Jr. borrow $200 but "didn't realize he was on drugs. And then I was told he was on drugs and I was devastated and shocked. ... I wouldn't have lent him the money if I had known."

Seeds said that when he didn't help Block get the $500, "the case began to get worse."

He also said an investigator at the PRC, Billy Merrifield, harassed him and in January of last year was "lying in wait for me in the bathroom at the Santa Clara [sic] Casino." He said the man threatened to beat him.

Merrifield later apologized and asked to meet with Seeds at the Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino, Seeds said in the documents. Seeds thought that was strange, but agreed.

At the casino's Turquoise Trail Bar and Grill, Seeds explained his side of a complaint against the company.

He said he was "led to believe by Merrifield that he understood what had occurred and that the matter would be dropped," Seeds said.

"I, frankly, was expecting a request for money from Merrifield, but nothing of that sort occurred until May 2011, when Jerome Block Jr. asked me for money."

Seeds also said Merrifield followed his towing company drivers, solicited complaints and asked a law-enforcement officer to run a "Homeland Security check" on him.

Merrifield had no comment when asked about the allegations. He referred a reporter to Transportation Division Director Larry Lujan, who didn't return a call Wednesday evening.

Bishop said the PRC's Legal Division had no record of any confrontations during the case.

Seeds said he twice requested that Merrifield "and his associates" be removed from his case, but he got no response. He said he also filed a public records request to obtain his file in the case but got no response.

According to Bishop, however, Seeds sent a request for records on Nov. 15. The Administrative Services Division left Seeds a message letting him know on Nov. 30 that the documents were ready, he said, and Seeds picked them up on Jan. 19.

Seeds is asking for a new hearing in the case and said all he wants is a fair shake. "We are just asking for our day before the PRC," he said. "There are two sides to every story. We will give ours, and we'll go from there."

Seeds has 30 days to pay the fine or the commission will suspend the company's operating authority.

When it announced the fines, the PRC also said Seeds had exceeded approved tariff rates for towings and withheld personal property.

The commission has said it would forward the Seeds matter to law-enforcement authorities. Bishop said Wednesday he believed the agency was "still determining the best course of action."

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com.