{"id":746,"date":"2006-10-19T13:36:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-19T19:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/garzas-court-hearing-is-a-day-after-his-re-election\/"},"modified":"2006-10-19T13:36:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-19T19:36:00","slug":"garzas-court-hearing-is-a-day-after-his-re-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/garzas-court-hearing-is-a-day-after-his-re-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Garza’s court hearing is a day after his re-election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Suspended Do\u00f1a Ana County Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza will be re-elected to the bench on Nov. 7. On Nov. 8, he\u2019ll most likely learn whether he gets to stay there. <\/p>\n

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

Garza, who is facing accusations that he used cocaine and abused his position to benefit a woman with whom he had a personal relationship, is running unopposed for re-election this year. Unless he resigns before Nov. 7, which he has said he will not do, Garza\u2019s victory on that day is certain.<\/p>\n

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

The New Mexico Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for Nov. 8 on the Judicial Standards Commission\u2019s petition to permanently remove Garza from the bench.<\/p>\n

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

Following the public hearing, which will be held at 9 a.m. in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, the justices will deliberate in private to decide Garza\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

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

The court has given Garza until Oct. 25 to respond to the commission\u2019s petition to have him removed. You can read the petition for Garza\u2019s removal by clicking here<\/a>. You can also read the supplementary findings of fact and conclusions of law, a document that contains more detail, by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Garza\u2019s current suspension without pay, implemented after he failed to comply with the commission\u2019s order to submit to drug testing, lasts through Friday. The commission has asked the court to extend that unpaid suspension until the matter is resolved, and the court has given Garza until Friday to respond.<\/p>\n

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

Either way, Garza will remain on suspension. The only question is whether he\u2019ll be paid during that time.<\/p>\n

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

The commission found that Garza:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 used illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 failed to comply with a commission order that he submit to testing for illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 evaded service of the commission\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 inappropriately used his judicial position in February 2006. Garza was in a car with Lauren Spillsbury when she was pulled over for speeding, and allegedly asked the police officer if he knew who Garza was and told Spillsbury he would \u201ctake care\u201d of the citation.<\/p>\n

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

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

Garza has vowed to continue fighting and says the commission\u2019s evidence against him is weak. He denies using drugs.<\/p>\n

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

If the court\u2019s justices believe Garza used drugs, he won\u2019t likely get a break. In recent years the court has come down hard on substance abusing judges and implemented new programs for those who seek help. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suspended Do\u00f1a Ana County Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza will be re-elected to the bench on Nov. 7. On Nov. 8, he\u2019ll most likely learn whether he gets to stay there. Garza, who is facing accusations that he used cocaine and abused his position to benefit a woman with whom he had a personal relationship, is […]<\/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-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","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=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}