{"id":14898,"date":"2010-03-22T15:37:02","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T21:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14898"},"modified":"2010-03-22T15:37:09","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T21:37:09","slug":"attorney-running-against-judge-who-accused-him-of-misconduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/attorney-running-against-judge-who-accused-him-of-misconduct\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney running against judge who accused him of misconduct"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_14900\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14900\" title=\"Montoya, Dennis W\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Montoya-Dennis-W.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis W. Montoya<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There\u2019s an interesting history between two candidates running for a seat on the <a href=\"http:\/\/coa.nmcourts.gov\/\">New Mexico Court of Appeals<\/a>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/news\/state\/21223138state03-21-10.htm\">Albuquerque Journal<\/a> went in-depth into it this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The race under scrutiny is between Appeals Court Judge <a href=\"http:\/\/www.votevanzi.com\/\">Linda Vanzi<\/a> and attorney <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denniswmontoya.com\/\">Dennis W. Montoya<\/a>, who\u2019s seeking to unseat her in the Democratic primary on June 1. But this \u201cisn\u2019t their first confrontation,\u201d the Journal article states.<\/p>\n<p>From the article:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cVanzi, while still a state District Court judge in Albuquerque, filed a complaint against Montoya with the board that investigates allegations of attorney misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe accused him of failing to represent the interests of a young boy whose father was killed in a one-car accident, questioned his fees and costs in the case, and accused him of lying to a guardian ad litem she appointed to protect the child\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_14899\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14899\" title=\"Vanzi, Linda\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Vanzi-Linda.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Linda Vanzi<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Vanzi wrote in her complaint to the Supreme Court\u2019s disciplinary board that Montoya \u201chas shown a disregard for the legal system, including the courts, other attorneys, and clients he supposedly represents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The complaint is still under investigation, and the Journal quoted Montoya\u2019s campaign manager, Santiago Juarez, as saying, \u201cBecause these are pending matters, Mr. Montoya\u2019s position is he does not want to be seen as unduly influencing the court by commenting in the media.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the charges are serious. The Journal article states that, if the board finds they have merit, \u201cit could recommend disciplinary action to the Supreme Court, ranging from a reprimand or fine to being disbarred.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An attorney who works on Vanzi\u2019s campaign, David Stout, was quoted by the Journal as saying the judge is prohibited by the code of conduct from commenting on pending cases.<\/p>\n<p>The article is worth reading. You can find it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/news\/state\/21223138state03-21-10.htm\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The documents related to Vanzi\u2019s complaint against Montoya can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/Documents\/Montoya-Dennis-Utley-Case.pdf\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/Documents\/Montoya-Dennis-Court-Opinion.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s an interesting history between two candidates running for a seat on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. The Albuquerque Journal went in-depth into it this weekend.<\/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":[108,161],"class_list":["post-14898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-judiciary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14898","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=14898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}