A tummy ache is apparently the reason Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza isn’t at work.
Garza is waiting to hear from the New Mexico Supreme Court after the Judicial Standards Commission filed a petition just over a week ago seeking his immediate, temporary suspension. Details of the case aren’t known because the high court sealed it.
Garza was last at work on Aug. 1 – the day after he learned of the commission’s request. He told the Las Cruces Sun-News that he has ulcers, is in pain and cannot concentrate.
Garza hopes to be back on the bench by the end of the week.
The other magistrates are rearranging schedules to fill in for Garza, which is a burden, but Garza told the Sun-News that’s better than having a judge who is in pain and can’t concentrate hear cases.
Garza also told the newspaper he’ll be cleared of any misconduct, and said, “the most difficult part of this is that I cannot speak to the media on the matter and give my side of the events. I want this resolved as soon as possible, because it takes a toll on you. You’d have to be Superman for it not to affect you. It’s even affecting my parents and family.”
Garza is running unopposed for re-election this year. He’s already on judicial probation stemming from an admission in May to improperly involving himself in a drunken driving case against a woman with whom he had a personal relationship.
Garza’s punishment from the high court in that case included a $600 fine, a formal reprimand, six months of supervised probation and mentorship. He failed to pay the fine by the June 22 deadline the court set, but paid it a week later, after the commission filed a motion seeking an order requiring Garza to explain why he should not be held in contempt.
Though Garza admitted to the charges in that case, he seemed to back off days later in an interview with the Sun-News, saying “I know the difference between wrong and right in my job and I had to admit something for economic reasons.”