{"id":28957,"date":"2011-05-02T17:08:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T23:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=28957"},"modified":"2011-10-08T21:49:37","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T03:49:37","slug":"grand-jury-meets-may-12-in-murphy-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/05\/grand-jury-meets-may-12-in-murphy-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand jury meets May 12 in Murphy case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Meanwhile, security was beefed up for a closed-door hearing held today, but officials won\u2019t say why<\/h4>\n

A grand jury is scheduled to meet May 12 to consider indicting Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy on charges including bribery.<\/p>\n

Ninth Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, confirmed the date earlier today. The grand jury will meet behind closed doors on May 12 at the Third Judicial District courthouse in Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

The grand jury has already been delayed twice<\/a>, but Chandler said he does not \u201canticipate any additional delays.\u201d He said he could not comment on other details of the case.<\/p>\n

Chandler spoke with NMPolitics.net as he left the courthouse in Las Cruces earlier today. He was there for a closed-door hearing in the case \u2013 a hearing for which security had obviously been beefed up. Chandler said the four-hour hearing was a \u201cstatus conference,\u201d but he and other officials would not comment on what happened at the hearing or why security had been increased.<\/p>\n

But a police presence beyond what\u2019s normal was obvious.<\/p>\n

Several extra sheriffs\u2019 deputies patrolled the halls at district court, as did a handful of plainclothes officers. Many stayed close to the courtroom where the Murphy hearing was held and peeked in frequently.<\/p>\n

Some stayed in the courtroom during the hearing \u2013 even though deputies were not in the courtroom during another closed-door hearing held in the case last month<\/a>. Do\u00f1a Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison even made an appearance at the court today, speaking with several deputies near the courtroom where the Murphy hearing was held before leaving.<\/p>\n

Murphy was present for the hearing, along with his attorney Michael Stout. Murphy did not attend last month\u2019s hearing in the case, but Stout did.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s hearing, like the one held last month, was presided over by Sixth Judicial District Judge J.C. Robinson.<\/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> Richardson has not commented on the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A grand jury is scheduled to meet May 12 to consider indicting Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy on charges including bribery, the special prosecutor assigned to the case confirmed today.<\/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],"class_list":["post-28957","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28957","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=28957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}