{"id":20880,"date":"2010-08-25T11:08:19","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T17:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=20880"},"modified":"2010-08-25T11:08:22","modified_gmt":"2010-08-25T17:08:22","slug":"embattled-magistrate-judge-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/08\/embattled-magistrate-judge-resigns\/","title":{"rendered":"Embattled magistrate judge resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_11869\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11869\" title=\"Guillory, Joseph\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Guillory-Joseph1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"233\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joseph Guillory (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A Do\u00f1a Ana County magistrate judge who was suspended earlier this year because of a host of problems with the way he conducted himself at the court resigned abruptly on Tuesday, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/las_cruces-news\/ci_15885392\">Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Guillory sent a letter to Supreme Court justices and the governor announcing his immediate resignation. According to the Sun-News, Guillory said \u201che and his wife have suffered poor health since his suspension and that he risks bankruptcy if he chooses to defend himself in court against allegations of misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c\u2026he said Tuesday he and his agent are picking a cover and a title to a nearly completed tell-nearly-all memoir, penned with the assistance of two professional authors, about his time on the bench and his 26 years in law enforcement.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Guillory was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/01\/judge-suspended-for-two-months-without-pay\/\">suspended for two months without pay<\/a> in January for a number of issues detailed in Judicial Standards Commission records:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He \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<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>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<\/li>\n<li><!--more-->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<\/li>\n<li>While hearing one case in 2008, Guillory assisted an officer \u201cin presenting his case.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>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<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to the Sun-News, since then \u201cother complaints have alleged that Guillory was unable to handle his case load &#8211; 80 to 85 cases a day, he said &#8211; and that he took too much time off &#8211; 18 days &#8211; after the sudden death of his 41-year-old daughter in April.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey throw so much on the wall and hope it sticks,\u201d the newspaper quoted Guillory as stating in his letter, adding that he wrote that a defense against the \u201cpetty allegations\u201d would cost $150,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI could bring in a hundred lawyers to vindicate my bruised reputation,\u201d the newspaper quoted Guillory\u2019s letter as saying. \u201cBut my instincts tell me it is time to pull stakes and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Do\u00f1a Ana County magistrate judge who was suspended earlier this year because of a host of problems with the way he conducted himself at the court resigned abruptly on Tuesday, the Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting.<\/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-20880","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\/20880","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=20880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}