[CTB-NM] Two down, another pending

From the The Los Alamos Monitor —

New Mexico Supreme Court ousts Aztec magistrate from office

SANTA FE (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court has removed Aztec Magistrate Court Judge Connie Johnston from office for misconduct that a state commission said included dishonesty, surreptitious recording of private conversations in the courthouse and abuse of her judicial power of contempt.

The high court’s order issued its order Monday following a hearing on the Judicial Standards Commission’s April 10 petition seeking removal of Johnston from office.

Her term was set to end in December of 2018.

The commission’s petition cited Johnston’s “dishonesty shown in committing various acts of willful misconduct and throughout the commission’s proceedings, including her false statements under oath as well as her concealment of surreptitious recordings that she was ordered to disclose but kept secret until midtrial when she perceived a personal advantage to disclosure.”

(The first judge to go since we started this campaign was Pamela Smith from Sierra County.)

From The Carlsbad Current-Argus —

IPRA request revealed explicit emails on judge’s account by DeJanay Booth

It would seem that the New Mexico judicial system isn’t exempt from the Inspection of Public Records Act [IPRA].

The NM Foundation for Open Government [NMFOG] has the details on how to submit an IPRA request, including a sample request in PDF format.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

1. CTB-NM Main Page
2. The CTBNM Facebook page — like it, share it, spread it around.
3. Ballotpedia page about New Mexico Courts
4. Ballotpedia page about New Mexico judicial elections
5. National Council for State Courts — Judicial Selection in the States: New Mexico