In the end, Galvan simply gave up fighting

Posted 7/25/2006 08:54:00 AM

He beat two criminal trials and apparently had a chance to beat misconduct allegations, but in the end, former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan just gave up.

“He knew it was coming. It was expected, so there’s nothing new on the horizon,” Galvan’s attorney, Joe Arrieta of Las Cruces, told the Las Cruces Sun-News about last weeks’ Supreme Court ruling barring Galvan from the judiciary.

Arrieta called the decision “pointless,” saying Galvan never planned to seek judicial office again, and his history would almost ensure he couldn’t be elected.

“Obviously, the disciplinary background of Judge Galvan would keep him (from public office),” Arrieta told the newspaper.

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.

Justices made clear in their ruling barring Galvan from ever again holding judicial office in New Mexico that they were not finding him guilty of misconduct because the Judicial Standards Commission didn’t prove its case with “clear and convincing evidence.” The assistant to the chief justice said Galvan’s failure to respond to the petition for discipline did him in.

He let pass a June 16 deadline to respond to the commission’s petition seeking a permanent ban from office. Arrieta’s comments indicate that Galvan saw no point in responding.

What if he had?

The final chapter in the Galvan saga ended up being just as interesting as the rest of his career as a public official.