BREAKING NEWS: High court says Galvan can't be a judge ever again

Posted 7/21/2006 05:57:00 PM

The New Mexico Supreme Court has issued an order barring former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan from ever again holding judicial office.

Galvan had a chance to defend himself in the matter, but he let pass a June 16 deadline to respond to the Judicial Standards Commission’s petition seeking a permanent ban from office. The high court issued its order Thursday.

Galvan resigned last year amid allegations that he raped and solicited a bribe from a Las Cruces woman in August 2004. After two hung juries, prosecutors dropped the criminal charges.

Galvan admitted in a statement to police to actions that may violate the judicial code of conduct. While drinking and flirting in a bar, he discussed with the woman a pending battery case against her husband, though she was the alleged victim in that case. He had sex with the woman, though she and her husband had been married two months earlier by Galvan.

He also took the woman for a ride in his Porsche, though he told police he had too much to drink before driving.

Before the rape allegation surfaced, Galvan was barred from hearing criminal cases for a time because he had a sexual relationship with an assistant district attorney while hearing cases she was prosecuting. He also has two prior drunken driving convictions.