Former cop, magistrate to run for municipal judge

Conrad F. Perea has announced his candidacy for Las Cruces Municipal Court judge.

The position is currently held by Melissa Miller-Byrnes, the court’s presiding judge, but is up for grabs on Nov. 6.

Perea is a private-practice attorney. He was an officer with the Las Cruces Police Department for 20 years before being appointed as a magistrate judge in 1999. Upon completion of his appointed term, he earned his law degree from the University of Denver. He has since worked with the Third Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Las Cruces and has been a magistrate judge pro tempore since 2004.

Perea said he is running “to restore the confidence that has been lost in our Las Cruces Municipal Court. The Las Cruces Municipal Court, as all courts, must be an unbiased forum in which all parties receive fair treatment, and I have proven that I can provide this.”

Perea is a lifelong resident of Doña Ana County and has lived in Las Cruces since 1979. He has also has served as a trainer/instructor for the University of New Mexico Judicial Education Center and as a volunteer Doña Ana County Teen Court judge.

“Las Cruces is my community and I will work hard to ensure that it is a community of justice where everyone will be heard,” he said. “I believe in open government. The Municipal Court is a branch of our city government that must be open. The citizens of Las Cruces have a right to know and the court has an obligation to report.”