{"id":29298,"date":"2011-05-16T10:22:10","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T16:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=29298"},"modified":"2011-10-08T21:49:13","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T03:49:13","slug":"potential-threat-from-murphy-may-have-led-to-increased-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/05\/potential-threat-from-murphy-may-have-led-to-increased-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential threat from Murphy may have led to increased security"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Three days before security was beefed up for a closed-door hearing in the case against Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy, the court\u2019s staff attorney reported a possible threat from Murphy to law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Norm Osborn relayed the potential threat to an investigator working with special prosecutor Matt Chandler on April 29, according to the incident report released Saturday<\/a> in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Osborn stated he had a discussion with Judge Murphy about the investigation. He told Mr. Osborn that he told his wife to lock up his firearms,\u201d the report states. \u201cJudge Murphy also stated, \u2018If I go down for this, I\u2019m not going alone. I\u2019m taking someone with me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Murphy meant that he planned to do something violent or that he planned to share evidence with prosecutors that would implicate someone else in a crime isn\u2019t clear. But if Murphy\u2019s statement is the reason security was increased, law enforcement took it very seriously.<\/p>\n

As NMPolitics.net noted at the time<\/a>, security was dramatically beefed up for a closed-door hearing held May 2. 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 \u2013 Murphy was present for the hearing \u2013 and peeked in frequently.<\/p>\n

Some stayed in the courtroom during the hearing, even though deputies were not in the courtroom during another closed-door hearing held in the case\u00a0last month<\/a>. Do\u00f1a Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison also made an appearance at the court, speaking with several deputies near the courtroom where the Murphy hearing was held before leaving.<\/p>\n

As a judge, Murphy doesn\u2019t have to pass through a metal detector to enter the courthouse. He also has access to a hallway that isn\u2019t accessible to the public and leads to each courtroom.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors and law enforcement officials have refused to comment about the reason for the increased security. But security was beefed up again last week<\/a> during Thursday\u2019s closed-door hearing in the case and Friday\u2019s grand jury proceedings.<\/p>\n

The Do\u00f1a Ana County Sheriff\u2019s Department SWAT team was at the courthouse monitoring the situation. The undersheriff was also present for part of Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three days before security was beefed up for a closed-door hearing in the case against Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy, the court\u2019s staff attorney reported a possible threat from Murphy to law enforcement.<\/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":[142,115,216,161,114,107],"class_list":["post-29298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","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\/29298","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=29298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}