Santa Fe case provides perspective on metro court debate in Las Cruces area

An interesting court case in Santa Fe could provide some perspective on the debate over creation of a metro court in Doña Ana County.

Twelve felony counts of records tampering against former Santa Fe Municipal Judge Frances Gallegos were dismissed Friday by District Judge Michael Vigil. Gallegos had been charged after altering public records in drunken driving cases. Essentially, she took the records of 12 cases that had been dismissed or in which the defendants had been found not guilty and changed them to reflect that she sentenced the defendants to jail time.

It’s impossible to sentence anyone who has not been convicted of a crime, a fact Vigil said is obvious to those trained in the law, but was not obvious to Gallegos, who is not an attorney. Unlike Las Cruces, Santa Fe does not require its municipal judges to be attorneys.

Vigil dismissed the charges because he found no criminal intent by Gallegos.

“I’m not convinced Judge Gallegos understood or had a clue…” Vigil said, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. “It’s basically on a level of incompetence or ignorance that is never acceptable when dealing with people’s lives. It’s quite frustrating.”

Gallegos agreed that incompetence was to blame.

“I’m incompetent, but I’m not a crook,” Gallegos told Vigil.

According to The New Mexican, Vigil said in his 30 years practicing law there have been many changes that have complicated the business. He suggested that, as the legislature has enacted tougher drunken driving laws, the concept of a “people’s court” in Santa Fe has become outdated.

“Maybe it’s time we all accept the fact that the fantasy of a people’s court may be just that – a fantasy,” he said. “They system has become so complicated that people need formal legal training.”

This is the same battle that’s been playing out in Las Cruces. The magistrate court does not require judges to be attorneys, and the court has been plagued by scandal in recent years, much of it centered around a few judges making ethically challenged or ignorant decisions.

Heavy lobbying by the county’s magistrate judges and some other Democrats killed the proposal to proceed with a metro court in the last legislative session. Such a proposal would create a court similar to that in Bernalillo County, and would require that judges be attorneys.

The main problem with the current metro court proposal is its failure to deal with the rural nature of our large county, a situation that doesn’t exist in Bernalillo County. It’s unreasonable to ask residents of Sunland Park and Hatch to come to Las Cruces to deal with traffic tickets or drunken driving charges.

In addition, metro court opponents point out, rightly, that not all attorneys make good judges, and there are some good magistrate judges who aren’t attorneys.

However, there is something to be said for legal training and the accountability of having a license to practice law. This county is growing and changing and, as appears to be the case in Santa Fe, it may be time for a change.