District Judge Mike Murphy
Updated 5/13/11, 6:30 a.m.: As was the case Thursday, Heath Haussamen will tweet live from district court as the situation develops today. Follow him on Twitter @haussamen, or for those of you who aren’t familiar with Twitter, at twitter.com/haussamen.
An early morning hearing in the bribery case against Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy ended up lasting all day, and a grand jury that was scheduled to meet today has been delayed until Friday.
The reason for the closed-door hearing isn’t known. It was already ongoing when NMPolitics.net arrived at the courthouse in Las Cruces at 8:30 a.m. today. It was still going on when NMPolitics.net left the courthouse at 4 p.m.
Grand jury members and witnesses subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury waited until nearly 4 p.m. before being told to go home and handed another subpoena to appear Friday at 9 a.m. Special prosecutor Matt Chandler plans to ask the grand jury to OK bribery charges against Murphy.
Because grand jury proceedings are secret, the identities of witnesses in the case weren’t known before today, when they showed up at court. Though this may not be a complete list, those Chandler plans to call to testify include:
- District Judge Jim T. Martin
- Former District Judge Stephen Bridgforth
- Former Appeals Court Judge and Las Cruces attorney Beverly Singleman
- Edgar Lopez, a longtime Democratic political insider who heads a Las Cruces real estate company
Is Lopez the ‘local political figure?’
Lopez was perhaps the most interesting of those who showed up at court today. Murphy is alleged to have paid a bribe in exchange for then-Gov. Bill Richardson appointing him to the bench in 2006, and possibly also soliciting bribes for Richardson from applicants for other judgeships.
Edgar Lopez, a longtime Democratic political insider, was among those subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. He and the others waited hours at the courthouse today before being told to come back Friday. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
The bribe or bribes were allegedly paid as political contributions and went to an unnamed “local political figure.”
Lopez declined to talk with NMPolitics.net about the case today. But he was heavily involved behind the scenes in the selection of judges during Richardson’s tenure. He has said to many people in Doña Ana County – including me – that judicial applicants needed to go through him to get to Richardson. He sat on a judicial nominating commission that recommended candidates to fill an appeals court vacancy in 2007.
And Lopez was involved when Murphy was appointed to the bench in 2006. In fact, NMPolitics.net documented Lopez’s presence at a judicial nominating commission meeting that year, when the commission recommended Murphy and two others to Richardson for consideration.
After Richardson appointed Murphy in 2006, Lopez lobbied the state Democratic Party to get behind the appointment.
“Our great Governor Bill Richardson has asked us all to support Michael Murphy,” Lopez was quoted by the Las Cruces Sun-News as saying at a Democratic Party meeting following Richardson’s appointment.
Lots going on behind the scenes
Today’s delay was at least the third in the case. In addition, a Silver City judge – Sixth Judicial District Judge J.C. Robinson – has held at least three pre-grand jury hearings in the case including today’s, which is highly unusual since judges aren’t usually that involved in grand juries.
District judges convene grand juries, but judges do not preside over grand jury proceedings – closed-door meetings at which prosecutors try to convince grand juries to charge someone with a crime.
In addition, the heightened security that was evident during a hearing held in the case last week was present again today. The Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team was at the courthouse. Officials aren’t commenting on the reason for the increased security.
Clearly, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes in this case, but those involved aren’t revealing much about it. It’s likely that Murphy’s attorney, Michael Stout of Las Cruces, is challenging Chandler’s handling of the grand jury, which is why hearings before a judge are necessary.
In addition, several people, including Murphy’s former law partner Tito Meyer, appeared at the courthouse today as possible witnesses, but they were sent home early. The defense doesn’t normally get to call witnesses during grand jury proceedings, but it’s unlikely Meyer and others would have left if they were witnesses for the prosecution.
Murphy didn’t appear in court for today’s events, but his wife was there.