Court: City doesn't have to reimburse municipal judges for defense of ethical complaint

Posted 8/10/2006 07:24:00 AM

A district judge has denied a request to force the City of Las Cruces to reimburse its municipal judges for the cost of defending themselves against an ethical complaint filed by the city attorney’s office.

District Judge Jerald A. Valentine ruled Wednesday that the judges, Melissa Miller-Byrnes and James T. Locatelli, “have not pointed to any duty that requires (the city) to pay” their legal fees, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. Those fees topped more than $100,000. You can read Valentine’s decision by clicking here.

The judges claimed the city’s failure to pay violated the separation of powers doctrine. But because the ethical complaint was handled by the Judicial Standards Commission, a part of the judicial branch, “neither the executive branch nor legislative branch of the city has infringed upon the inherent power of the judiciary by refusing to pay Plaintiff Judges’ attorneys fees. There is no violation of the constitutional doctrine of Separation of Powers,” he we wrote in his decision.

The defeat for the judges comes days after a separate victory. Last week, District Judge Robert E. Robles denied the city’s request to force the judges off cases prosecuted by the city attorney’s office, which wanted their recusals because of the pending lawsuit.

The dispute began in 2004 when the judges complained to city management about the handling of cases by prosecutors and police. When mediation failed, they wrote a letter to the Sun-News alleging incompetence by police and city prosecutors.

After the letter was published, the city attorney’s office filed a complaint with the commission, which asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to discipline the judges. The high court dismissed the complaint related to the letter, but chastised Miller-Byrnes for calling one city prosecutor a “smart ass.”

The judges filed their lawsuit in May.

At the end of it all, the two judges have said publicly that the situation they first complained about in 2004 has improved, but they spent a lot of money to get to this point, and the relationship between the judges and city administration is horrible.

The relationship between the judges and city police is also pretty bad, and the 2004 complaint isn’t the only reason. Many officers are fed up with what they believe are problems with the judges, and are filing cases instead in magistrate court. That, of course, further burdens court that saw Magistrate Carlos Garza suspended for 90 days Wednesday while the commission investigates serious allegations against him.