The New Mexico Supreme Court has been asked to ban former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan from holding judicial office again.
This week’s filing by the Judicial Standards Commission is the result of an April trial before the board and states that Galvan “is unfit to hold judicial office.”
The high court has not set a date for oral arguments.
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.
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. 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.
Before the rape allegation surfaced, Galvan 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.
The fact that the commission is asking the court to permanently keep Galvan off the bench means the two sides could not reach a settlement on their own, most likely because Galvan refused to agree to never again run for judicial office.
Galvan has said he may attend law school and become an attorney.