{"id":28160,"date":"2011-04-06T09:19:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T15:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=28160"},"modified":"2011-10-08T21:49:51","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T03:49:51","slug":"supreme-court-asked-to-suspend-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/04\/supreme-court-asked-to-suspend-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court asked to suspend Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

The N.M. Supreme Court<\/a> has been asked to immediately and temporarily suspend Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy, who is facing possible indictment<\/a> on bribery charges.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Judicial Standards Commission<\/a> filed the petition with the high court on Tuesday. The court has sealed the petition, so details aren\u2019t known publicly, except that it is a \u201cverified petition for immediate, temporary suspension.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the commission receives a serious complaint against a judge, it\u2019s not unusual for the body to seek immediate but temporary suspension. Such petitions usually don\u2019t charge a judge with ethical misdeeds, but instead seek suspension pending the outcome of the commission\u2019s probe.<\/p>\n

While cautioning that he could not speak about any specific case, Commission Director Randall D. Roybal told NMPolitics.net that such petitions are usually filed when allegations are \u201cserious enough that the commission believes the public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary is at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy has received notification that a grand jury will consider\u00a0charging him with bribery<\/a>. The allegations are that Murphy, a Democrat, paid a bribe in exchange for then-Gov.\u00a0Bill Richardson<\/a> appointing him to the bench in 2006, and that he may have solicited bribes for Richardson from applicants for other judgeships.<\/p>\n

The bribe or bribes were allegedly paid as political contributions and went to an unnamed\u00a0\u201clocal political figure.\u201d<\/a> No one besides Murphy, including Richardson, has received notification that they may be indicted.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s attorney, Michael Stout, could not immediately be reached for comment, but he has said Murphy \u2018committed no crime.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s next<\/h3>\n

The commission is the state body charged with investigating allegations of ethical misdeeds by judges, but it\u2019s up to the Supreme Court to decide whether a judge has broken ethical rules and discipline the judge.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court is now required by rule<\/a> to serve Murphy with an order to show cause why he should not be suspended. That order must be presented to Murphy at least 10 days before the Supreme Court sets a hearing on the matter \u2013 \u201cunless a shorter time is ordered by the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the court will make a decision on whether to suspend Murphy.<\/p>\n

When the commission completes its investigation, it will come back to the Supreme Court, potentially either with a petition to reinstate Murphy if it found no cause for disciplinary action, or, if it believes action is warranted, with a petition seeking discipline.<\/p>\n

Such discipline could be as severe as seeking Murphy\u2019s permanent removal from the bench.<\/p>\n

The chief judge in the Third Judicial District Court, Douglas R. Driggers, has already instructed that Murphy won\u2019t hear criminal cases<\/a> until the matter is resolved because of the conflict the situation creates.<\/p>\n

Though the Third Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office in Las Cruces has appointed a special prosecutor to take the case against Murphy, the office is still officially handling the case. It\u2019s also prosecuting criminal cases in the Third Judicial District Court, and many of them had previously been assigned to Murphy, who is assigned to the court\u2019s criminal division.<\/p>\n

Update, 10:20 p.m.<\/h3>\n

Stout had this to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Murphy believes that confidence in the judiciary\u00a0is critically important. To solidify confidence in his judicial service he will respond appropriately within the\u00a0rules of the Judicial Standards\u00a0Commission and the Supreme Court. In the end,\u00a0it will be clear through\u00a0proper process \u2013\u00a0not through unverified\u00a0and illegal leaks or gossip \u2013 that\u00a0any suggestions of wrongdoing are baseless.\u00a0Judge Murphy\u00a0has always acted lawfully and he will\u00a0continue to do so.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: The N.M. Supreme Court has been asked to immediately and temporarily suspend Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy, who is facing possible indictment on bribery charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[112,142,115,216,161,114,107],"class_list":["post-28160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bill-richardson","tag-crime","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-judge-murphy","tag-judiciary","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28160","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=28160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}