Murphy on defense over comments about gay people

Warning: This article contains language that is explicit and that many will find offensive.

With embattled District Judge Mike Murphy’s secretly recorded comments about gay people eliciting a statewide outcry, Murphy’s lawyer said Monday that his client has been and will continue to be supportive of the gay community.

“Judge Murphy has always treated litigants equally and with respect regardless of gender, race, religion or sexual preference and he will continue to do so when he returns to the bench,” attorney Michael Stout wrote in an e-mail to reporters. “He will continue to treat all persons equally and with respect.”

But Stout didn’t issue the apology some are seeking from Murphy.

The judge, who is facing bribery charges and is on suspension without pay, has been under fire for his comments about gay people since KOB-TV in Albuquerque reported last week on the audio recording, which was secretly made by District Judge Lisa Schultz in December 2010.

During the meeting with Schultz, Murphy made a number of statements some view as offensive – including detailing a conversation in which he told a court employee “a big old nasty faggot joke” because that employee was gay, and describing a cousin who is a lesbian as “a diesel dike from day one.”

Murphy spoke during the conversation with Schultz about an apparent investigation into his conduct, referencing “my confidential deal about being, you know, uh, anti-gay, anti-Semitic.” He said such allegations are “a crock of shit. You know, I may be rude, crude, and socially unacceptable, but I’m none of those other things.”

Lost in the media reporting, Stout said Monday, is the fact that Murphy was “talking privately in a friendly manner to an openly gay person, in part discussing gay politics and how to make improvement on gay issues. Not reported was that he praised the ending of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ in the military and the advances on gay marriage; he bemoaned the unfairness of bullying of gays in schools, the firing of a gay court employee and the stereotyping of gays by society.”

Stout is correct. Murphy also said all of those things during the conversation with Schultz.

‘Yet to issue a formal apology’

Stout’s comments came in response to the group Equality New Mexico (EQNM) sending out a news release calling Murphy’s comments “derogatory.”

“Judge Murphy has called into question the fundamental belief that all New Mexicans, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, actually receive a fair hearing –untainted by bias or bigotry – when they appear before a judge,” said Jacob Candelaria, the head of Equality NM.

“What’s worse is that while Judge Murphy has tried to excuse his offensive and unacceptable behavior, he has yet to issue a formal apology to the LGBT families of this state,” he said.

Stout didn’t apologize, but he said Murphy was “pained that his private comments have hurt anyone.”

“He agrees with EQNM’s goals and will continue to help achieve them,” Stout said. “As he said in his private (though secretly recorded) conversation, sexual preference of an individual has ‘all the significance of being left-handed.’ It is an irrelevant consideration both in court proceedings and otherwise.”

Stout is correct that Murphy’s comments about gay people have nothing to do with the bribery case, though one felony bribery charge is based on other comments contained in Schultz’s secret recording. Stout took issue with the recording being included in court records by prosecutor Matt Chandler, which is how the recording became public.

“Judge Murphy’s secretly-recorded, private conversations were perfectly lawful. This water-cooler talk has nothing whatsoever to do with bribery or any other charge,” Stout said. “Attaching this recording to a court document was a calculated attempt to convict an innocent man of a crime through the use of irrelevant, though sensational, language. In the end Judge Murphy’s innocence will shine through.”

Comments have ‘eroded public confidence’ in judiciary

“The real tragedy here,” Candelaria said, “is that Judge Murphy’s comments have further eroded public confidence in the judicial system.”

In a weekend editorial, the Albuquerque Journal agreed – not only as it relates to Murphy’s comments about gay people, but also with regard to the allegations that Murphy told several people he paid money for his appointment and told another potential judicial hopeful she had to do the same.

From the Journal editorial:

“Judge Murphy needs to ask himself if he would want someone who lacks a filter between brain and mouth to preside over his own case – perhaps someone whose witty repertoire includes you-might-be-a-redneck jokes. And he should ask whether it’s justice for serious cases to languish because a judge’s conduct is in question. And whether the entire judiciary should pay the consequences of his shoot-from-the-lip modus operandi.

“According to Murphy’s application seeking a judicial appointment, he promised he would ‘always try to preserve the good public repute of the court.’ He fell woefully short of that mark.

“He should try to repair it by apologizing and resigning.”