{"id":576,"date":"2006-09-13T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-13T19:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/garza-prepares-to-plead-case-before-high-court\/"},"modified":"2006-09-13T13:58:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-13T19:58:00","slug":"garza-prepares-to-plead-case-before-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/garza-prepares-to-plead-case-before-high-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Garza prepares to plead case before high court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Suspended Do\u00f1a Ana County Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza<\/a> is meeting with an attorney this afternoon as he prepares for a hearing next week before the state Supreme Court. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Garza would not name the attorney.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI may not hire an attorney,\u201d Garza said. \u201cI may consult with one only.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He said he has spent the last couple of weeks buried in paperwork as he prepares to argue against sanctions and that the Judicial Standards Commission has not been fair in its dealings with him. However, he said he will accept whatever decision the court makes.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be very satisfied with whatever answer they come up with,\u201d Garza said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Garza\u2019s public hearing is Wednesday at 9 a.m., and he said he will \u201cabsolutely, without a doubt\u201d attend. He is currently serving a 90-day suspension with pay while the commission investigates serious allegations against him stemming from five separate inquiries. Most details aren\u2019t known because the high court sealed the file.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In addition, the commission has asked the high court to suspend Garza without pay, force him to undergo urine and hair tests for illegal drugs, and explain why he should not be held in contempt for refusing the commission\u2019s previous demand for the tests, which were sought because of allegations that Garza is using drugs.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Garza has blamed many of the allegations on former Magistrate Judge Caleb Chandler, who is appointed by the high court to oversee operations at the magistrate court in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>. Garza claims Chandler<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is trying to force him off the bench.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIf they decide that Judge Chandler can do whatever he wants, then I\u2019ll have to decide whether I want to continue working at the court,\u201d Garza said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll decide that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Garza, who is running unopposed for re-election this year, is already on judicial probation after admitting in May to improperly involving himself in a drunken driving case against a woman with whom he had a personal relationship. Garza now claims he did nothing wrong in that case, and says he admitted to the allegations \u201cout of financial need.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suspended Do\u00f1a Ana County Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza is meeting with an attorney this afternoon as he prepares for a hearing next week before the state Supreme Court. Garza would not name the attorney. \u201cI may not hire an attorney,\u201d Garza said. \u201cI may consult with one only.\u201d He said he has spent the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576","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=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}