{"id":2294,"date":"2007-09-27T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-27T20:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/court-wants-to-suspend-judge-tied-to-housing-scandal\/"},"modified":"2007-09-27T14:35:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-27T20:35:00","slug":"court-wants-to-suspend-judge-tied-to-housing-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/court-wants-to-suspend-judge-tied-to-housing-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Court wants to suspend judge tied to housing scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Mexico Supreme Court<\/a> has rejected a petition for discipline of a judge tied to the state housing authority scandal because the requested punishment wasn\u2019t harsh enough.<\/p>\n

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

In an order issued today, the high court rejected the Judicial Standards Commission\u2019s <\/a>petition for discipline, which sought a reprimand for Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court<\/a> Judge Theresa Gomez and a requirement that she pay $17,000 in back rent to the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority<\/a>. The court suggested that Gomez be required to pay the back rent and be suspended for two weeks, but sent the matter to the commission for further consideration.<\/p>\n

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

The commission made the request earlier this month because Gomez lived rent-free, for 20 months, in a home owned by the housing authority, an organization whose mission is providing housing for low-income people. At the time, Gomez was making $93,000 per year.<\/p>\n

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

Gomez also dismissed traffic citations and cancelled an arrest warrant for Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos, the man who ran Region III at the time.<\/p>\n

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

As part of an agreement with the commission, Gomez admitted that her actions violated the ethical requirements of her job and agreed to the reprimand and to pay the back rent. But the high court asked why the recommended discipline wasn\u2019t worse and asked the commission to justify its request.<\/p>\n

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

Commission Director Jim Noel responded in writing that the \u201cprimary mitigating circumstance that affected this case from the outset is an absence of substantial documentary evidence. There is no evidence demonstrating any additional or more serious impropriety.\u201d That\u2019s because, an accompanying affidavit from the new director of Region III states, someone destroyed or took records from the public agency.<\/p>\n

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

In today\u2019s order, the Supreme Court said there was enough evidence to justify a suspension. Gomez admitted to ex parte communications with Gallegos before she dismissed his citations and cancelled the warrant. Though the other misconduct was a factor, the ex parte communication was \u201cof particular concern,\u201d the court wrote in its order, adding that it warrants \u201ca period of suspension.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The court stated that if the judge and commission agreed to a two-week suspension and the requirement that Gomez pay the $17,000 in back rent, it would issue such an order.<\/p>\n

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

The state\u2019s affordable housing system collapsed last year when the Region III authority defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. Those bonds were to be spent on affordable housing projects, but almost $900,000 went to Gallegos as salary, benefits and a questionable loan, and some $700,000 was loaned to the Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> authority for administrative costs.<\/p>\n

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

The state auditor<\/a> is currently conducting a review to try to determine the extent of the problems, and the attorney general<\/a> is investigating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Mexico Supreme Court has rejected a petition for discipline of a judge tied to the state housing authority scandal because the requested punishment wasn\u2019t harsh enough. In an order issued today, the high court rejected the Judicial Standards Commission\u2019s petition for discipline, which sought a reprimand for Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court Judge Theresa […]<\/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-2294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294","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=2294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}