Two more Doña Ana County judges are in the hot seat, extending the recent spate of judicial scandals that has plagued New Mexico in the past couple of years.
First, on Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza: He is the third judge in the past few months to admit to interfering in a case involving someone with whom he had a personal relationship. Apparently, in 2004, he arraigned, took a plea from and sentenced a woman in a drunken driving case. He admits that, sometime after that, he began having a “personal” relationship with the woman, according to a stipulated agreement filed with the New Mexico Supreme Court.
When that came to light, Garza recused himself, and the judicial proceedings began all over again in front of two other judges. The problem is, after admitting that he had a conflict and should have nothing more to do with the case, Garza contacted both judges on more than one occasion to discuss the case with them, and in at least one instance, he asked one of the judges to set a low bond or no bond.
He did that in front of the presiding judge of the magistrate court, Oscar Frietze.
Does Garza, a Democrat, really have no clue? Or was he so focused on “personal” issues that his ethics weren’t in the forefront of his mind?
This is exactly why judges must stay out of cases when they have a personal interest in their outcome. Garza’s stipulation to the allegations includes an agreement to a six-month probationary period and a formal reprimand, but the agreement must still be approved by the high court.
On to the other judicial news of the day: District Judge Larry Ramirez, a Las Cruces Democrat, was brought before the high court Wednesday on a petition for immediate, temporary suspension pending the results of a Judicial Standards Commission investigation.
Apparently, a number of court employees have accused Ramirez of sexual harassment, and a number of people who have appeared before Ramirez in court have accused him of making inappropriate comments. Five women are involved in the allegations, about which details aren’t known.
Ramirez’s attorney played the allegations down and said the judge is not guilty of harassment.
The high court denied the request for immediate suspension, but told the commission to make the probe a priority and come back soon with more information. Expect more news on this case in the near future.
Anyone who has spent time in Ramirez’s courtroom knows he is blunt and has at times offended people. He has crossed the line on at least one occasion. He was disciplined last year for berating a defense attorney.
What will be the result of the newest allegations? It’s too early to say, but Ramirez is already on judicial probation stemming from the defense attorney incident and another incident in which he admitted to improperly involving himself in is son’s alcohol-citation case.
I must say that most judges in Doña Ana County, and especially most of the district judges, are exemplary models for the community. But there have been so many incidents of misconduct in the past couple of years that the public should be skeptical, and there are clearly also some judges who have struggled to comply with the ethical code they swore to follow when they took office.
Yet most of the judges up for re-election this year are running unopposed. Why is that? Have people become so cynical about the courts that they have given up?
I hope not. The court system is too important.
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Let’s return to the subject of Doña Ana County Treasurer Jim Schoonover, a Republican. The quick recap: He’s been accused by County Attorney John Caldwell of committing the felony crime of misusing just under $500 in public money to purchase 1,700 pencils. The pencils look similar to his campaign materials and contain no information beyond his name and title.
At last week’s meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, Caldwell said the incident needed to be reported to the state auditor and New Mexico State Police.
He then took the issue before the county’s internal audit committee, which includes Commissioners Paul Curry, a Republican, and Oscar Vasquez Butler, a Democrat. The committee recommended that the commission report the incident to the auditor and state police.
So it seems likely that will happen, but the decision will apparently be left to the commission.
The situation may get worse.
I was able to confirm Wednesday that there is a second pencil purchase. I don’t yet know the details, but Schoonover’s office made another sizable purchase of pencils last year from the same vendor.
Are these more of the same pencils in question? I don’t know.
Schoonover has said this entire incident is political and he did nothing wrong. He says the pencils were handed out to kids at the end of educational presentations, and his accusers are after him in part because he is still pushing for more action to be taken regarding the recently released special audit of county government.
Caldwell is scheduled to give a presentation on the audit at Tuesday’s commission meeting in the hopes of quieting the rumblings among Republicans who are demanding prosecutions, firings and disciplinary action over the findings in the audit.
The Republican Party has yet to name specifically those who should go down over the audit, which found widespread problems in county government as recently as 2004. And though the party disputes the state auditor’s assertion the identified problems have apparently been corrected, Republicans have yet to provide evidence or even make specific allegations.
This story is far from over.
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It’s Thursday again. If there is major, breaking news today, I’ll have a special posting tomorrow; otherwise, I’ll have a link to an interesting political Web site. Come back then!