Former Judge Galvan charged with drunken driving

Former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan has been charged with drunken driving.

Galvan was arrested Sunday in El Paso County, according to online records. He faces a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated. He was released from jail Monday after posting a $200 bond.

Galvan has two prior DWI convictions in New Mexico from 1983 and 1990.

Galvan resigned from the bench in 2005 while battling allegations that he raped and solicited a bribe from a Las Cruces woman a year earlier. Prosecutors dropped the charges after two criminal trials ended with hung juries. Galvan has contended all along that the sex was consensual.

But he’s being sued by his accuser in that case. The civil lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 17 in Albuquerque.

The New Mexico Risk Management Division doesn’t want to pay to defend Galvan, and has asked the court to declare that he was acting outside the scope of his duties on the night in question and, therefore, it has no duty to defend him or pay if there’s a judgment against him.