{"id":11867,"date":"2010-01-22T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=11867"},"modified":"2010-01-22T10:29:06","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T17:29:06","slug":"judge-suspended-for-two-months-without-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/01\/judge-suspended-for-two-months-without-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge suspended for two months without pay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Joseph Guillory (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

When Gov. Bill Richardson appointed Joseph Guillory to the Do\u00f1a Ana County Magistrate Court in 2006, he said<\/a> Guillory\u2019s \u201cstrong law enforcement background will serve him well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guillory, a retired law-enforcement officer, is now serving a 60-day suspension without pay, which will be followed by a 12-month, supervised probationary period during which he will receive training in his \u201cobligations and responsibilities\u201d under the state\u2019s Code of Judicial Conduct<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That disciplinary action, taken by the New Mexico Supreme Court<\/a> earlier this month, comes because of a host of problems with the way Guillory has conducted himself at the court. Here are the details, according to a filing from state\u2019s Judicial Standards Commission<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Guillory \u201cabused the contempt power\u201d in two cases \u201cby denying fair treatment to the defendants and holding the defendants in contempt without proper justification,\u201d which the commission said \u201cdemonstrated a lack of proper judicial temperament and abuse of his judicial authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 He also \u201cfailed, refused, or was unable to perform his judicial duties\u201d \u2013 including a refusal to arraign defendants in at least four cases, a failure to properly sentence individuals in at least six cases, and a failure to complete arraignment forms correctly in at least six cases.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Guillory \u201cengaged in ex parte communications with litigants.\u201d Specifically, he was visiting with litigants, officers and bail bondsmen during smoke breaks, discussing specific cases \u201coutside and in front of the courthouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The judge also \u201cregularly took short naps at his desk during the noon hour, within view of the court staff and the public,\u201d and on one occasion, fell asleep \u201cwhile three defendants were waiting for paperwork from his clerk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 While hearing one case in 2008, Guillory assisted an officer \u201cin presenting his case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Within earshot of the public, he voiced his \u201cdiscontentment\u201d with Presiding Magistrate Judge Oscar Frietze and referred to him \u201cin a condescending manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read the commission\u2019s petition for discipline and the high court\u2019s order here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Commission: Guillory has \u2018made a diligent effort\u2019 to improve<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s been a history of problems with some judges in Do\u00f1a Ana County<\/a>, but it\u2019s been years since any judge from the county has been disciplined.<\/p>\n

Guillory admitted to the misconduct in the commission\u2019s filing with the Supreme Court and accepted the discipline the commission proposed and the court imposed. The filing states that there are \u201cseveral mitigating factors that the Commission took into consideration,\u201d including that Guillory \u201cwas under emotional stress\u201d at the time of the problems because his wife was suffering from serious health problems, that Guillory\u2019s \u201cdemeanor with the clerks and other judges has improved immensely,\u201d and that he \u201chas made a diligent effort to correct any inappropriate behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guillory has no prior history of discipline by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Guillory\u2019s suspension was first reported on by the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>, which quoted Frietze as saying, \u201cI\u2019m sorry it happened like that, but we do have rules that we have to obey. We live in a glass house. We work in a glass house. We cannot do anything that we\u2019d like to do just because we\u2019d like to do those things. We\u2019re bound by rules, to conform with those rules.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A magistrate judge in Do\u00f1a Ana County is serving a 60-day suspension without pay after he admitted to a host of problems, including abusing contempt power and engaging in ex parte communications about cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[115,161],"class_list":["post-11867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-judiciary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}