The New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission will decide next month whether to seek an order barring former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan from seeking office again.
Galvan resigned last year amid allegations that he raped and solicited a bribe from a Las Cruces woman in August 2004. After two hung juries, prosecutors dropped the criminal charges.
But a source close to the case tells me the hearing before the commission has been set for mid-April. The hearing is secret, and its results won’t become public unless the commission asks the New Mexico Supreme Court to bar Galvan from seeking office again.
Galvan admitted in a statement to police to actions that may violate the judicial code of conduct. While drinking and flirting in a bar, he discussed with the woman a pending battery case against her husband, though she was the alleged victim in that case. And he had sex with the woman, though she and her husband had been married two months earlier by Galvan.
He also took the woman for a ride in his Porsche, though he told police he had too much to drink before driving.
Galvan has a history of problems. Before the rape allegation surfaced, he was barred from hearing criminal cases for a time because he had a sexual relationship with an assistant district attorney while hearing cases she was prosecuting. He also has two prior drunken driving convictions.
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Many of you have e-mailed to ask why I didn’t write last week about two events that captured headlines in New Mexico: Democrats voted at their pre-primary nominating convention to call for the impeachment of President Bush, and Republicans blamed the shooting death of Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Deputy James McGrane on Gov. Bill Richardson.
First on the Democrats: When I heard the news, my first thought was, “duh.” Of course many Democrats support the impeachment of Bush, especially when you get hundreds of them together in a room and let them anonymously vote on such a statement. To me, this was the biggest non-story of the week.
Those who have been asked on the record how they voted – Richardson and Attorney General Patricia Madrid – quickly distanced themselves from the vote, and that’s another reason this was a non-story: The party’s big guns weren’t willing to back up the action, at least on the record.
A public debate on impeachment is probably a good idea. I doubt there’s a list that shows how each member voted, but I would be more than happy to try to start a debate by getting Democrats on the record, if anyone possesses such a list and wants to share it with me.
On to the Republicans: They blamed Richardson for the shooting death because he has pledged to not build new prisons and because he appoints the members of the parole board that granted early release to the suspect in the case
I’m reminded of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who blamed pagans, pro-choicers, feminists and homosexuals for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Politicizing tragedy is cheap, but it’s especially bad when you grossly oversimplify an issue for your own political gain.
Everyone, including the Republican Party, knows that building more prisons won’t solve our crime problem. It’s true that the suspect in the deputy’s murder was paroled early. It’s true that our prisons are overcrowded and few inmates serve full prison sentences. But the state has estimated that, to keep up with our growing prison population, we need to build a new facility every three years.
I think taxpayers would balk at such a suggestion, though it seems to be the position of the Republican Party.
The crime problem is complex. A solution needs to include tougher sentences and, perhaps, more prison cells in the short term, but it must also include rehabilitation programs and other measures to help reduce crime in the long run.
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I’ll leave you for the day with a piece of news I wanted to make sure everyone saw. This from a Friday Associated Press article: “Former first lady Barbara Bush gave relief money to a hurricane relief fund on the condition that it be spent to buy educational software from her son Neil’s company.” This from a woman who said Katrina evacuees housed at the Houston Astrodome were “underprivileged anyway” and suggested that the Astrodome was a step up for them.
Enough said. Have a great day, and come back tomorrow for more. By the way, people who were out of town for spring break last week may not yet know about my blog. If you like what I’m doing, tell your friends about it. You can e-mail this entry by clicking on the envelope icon below.