Ninth Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler
A private defense attorney says a former employee of District Attorney Matt Chandler who has accused the DA of playing politics in the case against a Las Cruces judge called Chandler “honest and ethical” in a conversation earlier this year.
Chandler provided NMPolitics.net with a letter from Clovis attorney Fred Van Soelen that describes an affidavit from Soelen about his encounter with Kirk Chavez.
Soelen didn’t provide the full affidavit, saying it names other people “not involved in this matter,” but provided an excerpt in the signed letter to NMPolitics.net.
The encounter detailed in the affidavit came after Chavez appeared on behalf of Chandler at a hearing in the bribery case against District Judge Mike Murphy in Las Cruces. Soelen lives across the street from Chavez in Clovis, and wrote that he saw Chavez arrive home and approached him to ask how the hearing went.
“I think yesterday was my last day at the district attorney’s office,” Soelen says Chavez told him.
From the affidavit excerpt:
“He then said Matt Chandler was the best attorney he knew, honest and ethical, but that he had a problem with the investigators that worked for Matt.”
Soelen says that conversation should shed light on an affidavit Chavez, who is no longer employed in Chandler’s office, provided to Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles W. Daniels last week. As NMPolitics.net reported Thursday, Chavez is accusing Chandler of playing politics in an attempt to gain an advantage in the Murphy case by “judge shopping.” He accuses Chandler of seeking to have an earlier judge who Daniels assigned to the case disqualified by releasing a public statement that would imply collusion between Daniels and Murphy’s attorney, Michael Stout.
The intent, Chavez wrote in his affidavit, was to pressure Daniels into appointing “a more conservative, and hopefully Republican judge” to the case against Murphy, who is a Democrat.
Chandler, a Republican, says the allegation is false. Soelen wrote this in his letter to NMPolitics.net:
“I sincerely question how Mr. Chavez could later make a claim of misconduct after telling me and numerous other people that Matt Chandler is the most honest and ethical attorney and prosecutor he has ever known.”
Read the full letter here.
Update, 11:10 a.m.
Chavez sent NMPolitics.net this statement:
“Heath, as you know, I have refused to comment on this case, and I will continue to do so. But, after reading Mr. Van Soelen’s comments, I must make the following statement.
“Matthew Chandler is one of the finest people I know. He is value-oriented and the best prosecutor in New Mexico. I will always have the deepest respect for Mr. Chandler, and he knows he will always have my support in future endeavors. I learned more in my three years working for Mr. Chandler than anybody else in my life other than my father.
“With that said, even the best of attorneys and people make mistakes. My profession teaches me that I must be truthful even when the truth hurts myself or others around me, no matter how much I believe in them as people.
“So, Mr. Van Soelen is correct, and to this day I believe the words I told Mr. Van Soelen on the day after the hearing in Las Cruces.
“Although I believe some ethical missteps were taken in this case, Mr. Chandler is still the most ethical and honest man, as well as an attorney, that I have ever known.”