{"id":692,"date":"2006-10-10T07:42:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-10T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/garzas-trial-before-commission-starts-today\/"},"modified":"2006-10-10T07:42:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-10T13:42:00","slug":"garzas-trial-before-commission-starts-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/garzas-trial-before-commission-starts-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Garza’s trial before commission starts today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Judicial Standards Commission trial of suspended Do\u00f1a Ana County Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza begins today. <\/p>\n

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

The trial is expected to last three days. It will cover at least six different investigations into allegations of wrongdoing by Garza. If the commission finds any misconduct by Garza, it will ask the New Mexico Supreme Court to discipline him or even remove him from the bench.<\/p>\n

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

Only if the case is sent to the high court will the results of the commission trial become public.<\/p>\n

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

The high court has placed Garza on suspension without pay though Oct. 20 and, following that, suspension with pay until Nov. 3 while the commission investigates the serious allegations against him. If he returns to the bench, Garza will resume a previous probationary and mentorship period imposed because he improperly involved himself in a drunken driving case against a woman with whom he had a personal relationship.<\/p>\n

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

One of the investigations is into allegations that Garza used illegal drugs. Justices last month ordered Garza to submit to a hair test for illegal drugs. The results of that test aren\u2019t known publicly but, if the test was positive, the commission will consider that evidence.<\/p>\n

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

The high court ordered the suspension without pay last month after Garza refused the commission\u2019s previous demand that he submit to drug testing. The commission, which accuses Garza of intentionally evading service of the order, asked the high court to demand that Garza explain why he shouldn\u2019t be held in contempt for refusing, but the court told the commission it can hold Garza in contempt, if it chooses. That could be another aspect of Garza\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n

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

The commission will also consider allegations:<\/p>\n

\u2022 that Garza violated local court rules of the Do\u00f1a Ana County Magistrate Court<\/st1:address><\/st1:street>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 that he attempted to bring a minor into a bar.<\/p>\n

\u2022 that he was in a car with Lauren Spillsbury when she was pulled over for speeding, and asked the police officer, \u201cDo you know who I am?\u201d and told Spillsbury, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll take care of these tickets.\u201d It was interfering in Spillsbury\u2019s drunken driving case that landed Garza on probation and in formal mentorship.<\/p>\n

\u2022 that he ordered Spillsbury\u2019s license cleared of any suspensions in the middle of a pending case.<\/p>\n

\u2022 that he was removed from the on-call list of judges who can sign warrant requests from police officers because, on two occasions, he revealed the identities of undercover officers to people at a bar.<\/p>\n

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

Several witnesses have been subpoenaed to testify before the commission, including a Mesilla police officer. It\u2019s not clear whether Garza will have legal representation. He has had two different attorneys during his dealings with the commission and, at times, represented himself.<\/p>\n

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

Garza is running unopposed for re-election this year. If he doesn\u2019t return to the bench, the governor will appoint his replacement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Judicial Standards Commission trial of suspended Do\u00f1a Ana County Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza begins today. The trial is expected to last three days. It will cover at least six different investigations into allegations of wrongdoing by Garza. If the commission finds any misconduct by Garza, it will ask the New Mexico Supreme Court to […]<\/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-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","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=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}