{"id":30067,"date":"2011-06-17T12:54:41","date_gmt":"2011-06-17T18:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=30067"},"modified":"2011-10-20T10:18:50","modified_gmt":"2011-10-20T16:18:50","slug":"murphy-faces-additional-misdemeanor-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/06\/murphy-faces-additional-misdemeanor-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"Murphy faces additional misdemeanor charge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy, already facing felony bribery charges, is now facing an additional misdemeanor charge of violating the state\u2019s Governmental Conduct Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The misdemeanor is based on the same allegations that led to Murphy\u2019s indictment<\/a> in May on felony bribery charges. The new charge alleges that Murphy failed to meet the statutory requirement that a public officer \u201cconduct himself in a manner that justifies the confidence placed in him by the people, at all times maintaining the integrity and discharging ethically the high responsibilities of public service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The misdemeanor charge was filed Thursday by Dan Blair, an investigator working with special prosecutor Matt Chandler. A violation of the Governmental Conduct Act is punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.<\/p>\n

Murphy now faces a maximum of 11.5 years in prison if convicted on all charges.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors\u00a0allege that Murphy solicited a bribe<\/a> from potential judicial applicant Beverly Singleman, told District Judge Lisa Schultz to tell Singleman she needed to pay the bribe, and threatened to destroy Singleman\u2019s reputation for telling others that he solicited a bribe from her.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No one besides Murphy has been charged or received notice that they may be indicted, but the investigation is ongoing. Murphy has pleaded not guilty<\/a> to the felony charges.<\/p>\n

The judge, who has been suspended<\/a> pending the outcome of the criminal case, violated the Governmental Conduct Act by \u201csoliciting money from a judicial candidate, by attempting to influence judicial appointments and the selection process, by threatening to ruin the reputation of a private attorney and\/or anyone else that reported his conduct to the authorities, and by insinuating to courthouse staff that he is going to harm himself or others<\/a> if he \u2018goes down for this,\u2019\u201d the complaint alleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Murphy, by and through his own statements and conduct, has failed to conduct himself in a manner that justifies the confidence placed in him by the people, and has failed to maintain the integrity or discharge ethically the responsibilities of his commitment and oath to publicly serve as a judicial district judge,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s attorney, Michael Stout of Las Cruces, could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Update, 5:05 p.m.<\/h3>\n

Stout sent this statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Murphy is, like all New Mexico judges, a person of high ethics and\u00a0great integrity and was quite properly elected to his position.\u00a0He takes seriously the confidence\u00a0placed in him by the people and he has always discharged his responsibilities of public service in a responsible manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Murphy has certainly committed no crime of any kind \u2013 misdemeanor or felony.\u00a0One might question the reason that an untrue misdemeanor charge\u00a0is added to an already unjustified indictment, but Judge Murphy is innocent and looks forward\u00a0to again serving the people.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A prior version of this article incorrectly stated that Murphy is charged with paying a bribe for his position.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy, already facing felony bribery charges, is now facing an additional misdemeanor charge of violating the state\u2019s Governmental Conduct Act.<\/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-30067","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\/30067","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=30067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}