{"id":28305,"date":"2011-04-12T00:57:21","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T06:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=28305"},"modified":"2011-10-08T21:49:46","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T03:49:46","slug":"supreme-court-rejects-request-to-suspend-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/04\/supreme-court-rejects-request-to-suspend-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court rejects request to suspend Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

District Judge Mike Murphy<\/p><\/div>\n

The N.M. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request to suspend Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy, who is facing\u00a0possible indictment<\/a> on bribery charges.<\/p>\n

The court said little in its order rejecting the request for immediate but temporary suspension, except to formally deny the Judicial Standards Commission\u2019s April 5 request<\/a> and order that \u201cthe sealed pleadings and sealed exhibits shall be returned\u201d to the commission.<\/p>\n

The order from Chief Justice Charles W. Daniels states that the other four justices concurred.<\/p>\n

That means Murphy will continue working as a judge in the Third Judicial District Court \u2013 the very court in which a grand jury may soon meet to consider indicting him.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Murphy is pleased with the Supreme Court\u2019s order,\u201d said Murphy\u2019s attorney, Michael Stout of Las Cruces. \u201cHe has served\u00a0honorably over\u00a0the years; it is appropriate that he continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read the Supreme Court order here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Murphy has received notification that a grand jury is scheduled to 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

Stout has said Murphy\u00a0\u2018committed no crime.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The grand jury has been delayed twice, and when it now plans to meet isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n

Court apparently reviewed \u2018pleadings and exhibits\u2019<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s not unusual for the Judicial Standards Commission to seek temporary suspension while it investigates serious allegations against a judge, and it\u2019s not uncommon for the Supreme Court to accept such a request from the commission \u2013 the state body charged with investigating allegations of judicial misconduct.<\/p>\n

Such a suspension is often not a statement that the judge has done something wrong, but is instead based on a belief that the allegations are serious enough that the judge could compromise the judiciary\u2019s integrity by continuing to hear cases during the investigation.<\/p>\n

Though the commission investigates alleged misconduct by judges, it\u2019s up to the Supreme Court to decide whether judges break ethical rules and to discipline.<\/p>\n

In ordering in Murphy\u2019s case that pleadings and exhibits filed by the commission be returned, the Supreme Court indicated that the commission included at least some evidence with its request for suspension, and that the court apparently reviewed the evidence before deciding that Murphy could remain on the bench while the commission investigates the allegations against him.<\/p>\n

If the commission eventually finds wrongdoing, it could ask the Supreme Court to take action against Murphy that could be as severe as seeking his permanent removal from the bench.<\/p>\n

Murphy still won\u2019t hear criminal cases<\/h3>\n

Even though Murphy will remain on the bench for now, he won\u2019t be hearing criminal cases. The chief judge in the Third Judicial District Court, Douglas R. Driggers, has already instructed that Murphy\u00a0won\u2019t hear such cases<\/a> until the matter is resolved because of the conflict the situation creates.<\/p>\n

The Third Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office in Las Cruces has appointed a special prosecutor to take the case against Murphy, but 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The N.M. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request to 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-28305","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\/28305","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=28305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}