The New Mexico Supreme Court will consider this morning a petition from the Judicial Standards Commission for the immediate, temporary suspension of District Court Judge Larry Ramirez, the children’s court judge in Las Cruces. The reason isn’t known publicly because the petition is sealed. But the hearing before the high court will apparently be public, so many of the details could come out.
The hearing is at 9 a.m.
Clearly, the allegations are serious. The last time a request for the immediate, temporary suspension of a Doña Ana County judge was granted was in 2004, when then-Magistrate Reuben Galvan was facing rape and bribery allegations.
I’m not saying Ramirez is facing criminal allegations of any sort. I’m just saying the allegations are clearly serious.
Even in the Galvan case, the Supreme Court filing wasn’t sealed. Though sealing petitions that seek action against judges isn’t unheard of, it’s not common.
If precedence is any indicator, the high court will have little patience with Ramirez. He was disciplined late last year after admitting to improperly involving himself in a public drinking case against his son, and to belittling a defense attorney in court.
In that case the high court approved Ramirez’s agreement with the commission, which required him to admit the allegations, complete an ethics course and reimburse the commission for some of the costs of its investigation.
But that wasn’t quite enough for Chief Justice Richard Bosson, who, during Ramirez’s hearing, called his conduct “really reprehensible.” Ramirez was the second judge from Doña Ana County to be disciplined for involving himself in a family member’s case last year. The other was Magistrate Susana Chaparro, and Bosson, referring to both the Ramirez and Chaparro cases, issued a warning to the state’s judges to keep their professional and family matters separate.
Chaparro resigned last month, just before another allegation of mixing her judicial and family roles was to come before the high court. She has agreed to never again seek judicial office, but the high court must still approve the agreement.
Is Ramirez, a Democrat, headed for the same fate? Since we don’t know the nature of the allegations against him, it’s hard to say. Hopefully, today’s hearing will shed some light on what’s happening.
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New Mexico State University President Michael Martin is making a strong push for the City of Las Cruces to build its convention center on the west end of campus.
The long-delayed project was pushed back once again several weeks ago by the university’s lobbying. City councilors seemed all but ready to give approval to build the center at a site near the Interstate 25/U.S. Highway 70 Interchange, commonly known as the Tee Time site, but some – most notably Councilor Jose Frietze – pushed for the city to proceed with planning for both that site and the university’s west-side site.
For years the university had been pushing for the convention center to be built on the east side of campus near the golf course. The site wasn’t ideal because it isn’t quite big enough.
But Martin wants the convention center, and he wants it bad, one source told me. Having it near campus would increase the visibility of the university, draw people toward all sorts of other facilities on campus, and be a huge opportunity for the university’s hotel, restaurant and tourism management program.
As part of the proposal, the university might also build its proposed performing arts center next to the convention center, and the two could share parking, the source said.
But the proposal will require the university to uproot the agricultural center on the west end of campus by moving research fields and some smaller buildings. Those have been around since before the school was a university, and the source tells me there is stiff opposition from the old guard.
Enter the old guard’s boss, Lowell Catlett, dean of the College of Agriculture and Home Economics, and his wife, State Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Mesilla. Gutierrez has apparently been involved in trying to make this deal happen.
The source also tells me that City Councilor Ken Miyagishima is warming to the proposal. The Tee Time site is in his district and he has opposed building a convention center there.
All this adds up to the probability that the city and university will work out a mutually beneficial deal, the source said.
Of course, the city has been this close to inking a deal before, but the project has stalled. In the meantime, Santa Fe has gone from not planning a new convention center to building one.
We’ll see what happens.
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State Land Commissioner candidate Jim Baca was in Las Cruces last week. As has been reported on Baca’s own blog and Duke City Fix, I had coffee with him to chat about the upcoming primary election. I’m not into endorsements and I’ve already written about one local Baca supporter, so I’m not going to tell you much except to say that Baca is proposing amendments to the state constitution that would actually limit the land commissioner’s power and increase oversight. Seems like an unusual tactic to me – if you elect me, I’ll cut my own power.
If you care to read more, click here. By the way, I’ll meet with any candidate for a state race who is coming through Las Cruces and wants to chat. I’m meeting with Geno Zamora, a Democrat running for attorney general, on Friday.
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Thanks for reading today. Tomorrow is shaping up to be interesting as well. I’ll have more on the Ramirez situation and whatever else is happening.