{"id":2018,"date":"2007-07-25T13:35:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-25T19:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/foley-case-a-political-hot-potato-for-judges\/"},"modified":"2007-07-25T13:35:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-25T19:35:00","slug":"foley-case-a-political-hot-potato-for-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/foley-case-a-political-hot-potato-for-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"Foley case a political hot potato for judges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The police officer who arrested House Minority Whip Dan Foley<\/a> last month has moved the case out municipal court, ensuring that a judge who has faced criticism for refusing to recuse himself won\u2019t preside over the proceedings. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The police department didn\u2019t tell the Roswell Daily Record<\/a> whether Municipal Judge Clyde McKee\u2019s decision to stay on the case resulted in Officer Pete Hernandez\u2019s decision to move the case from municipal to magistrate court in Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Regardless, the move was wise after McKee refused to recuse himself. McKee gave $50 to one of Foley\u2019s past campaigns, and his son is a close friend and financial backer of Foley. In addition, McKee told the Record<\/a> last week how he would likely rule on a motion to delay the trial date in the case even though he hadn\u2019t yet seen the motion, creating an appearance of prejudice.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In the face of calls for his recusal, McKee instead ruled a week ago in favor of delaying the trial from the original date of Aug. 2. On Friday, Hernandez dismissed the charges in municipal court, the newspaper reported. He plans to refile them in magistrate court.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a new problem: The magistrate court\u2019s two judges appear ready to recuse themselves, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be no doubt in my mind (that we would recuse),\u201d Magistrate Court Judge Eugene De Los Santos told the newspaper. He suggested the case should be moved to District Court so it can be heard by a judge who isn\u2019t from Roswell<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McKee was assigned the case earlier this month after another municipal judge, Hector Pineda, recused himself last month. Pineda has since resigned, citing personal reasons and telling the newspaper<\/a> that he\u2019s \u201chad enough.\u201d He was twice disciplined by the state\u2019s high court for ethical violations.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Foley is facing charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and resisting arrest after running onto a basketball court in Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> last month following a fight between two teams. During the fight, Foley\u2019s son was knocked over by the opposing coach. Police say Foley pushed his way past one officer and spit tobacco on him before having to be forcibly taken to the ground by two others. Foley says he remained calm throughout the incident and does not chew tobacco.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Foley has pleaded not guilty. He faces a maximum fine of $784 and 20 days in jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The police officer who arrested House Minority Whip Dan Foley last month has moved the case out municipal court, ensuring that a judge who has faced criticism for refusing to recuse himself won\u2019t preside over the proceedings. The police department didn\u2019t tell the Roswell Daily Record whether Municipal Judge Clyde McKee\u2019s decision to stay on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018","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=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}