Judges respond to ‘do not retain’ recommendations
Tension with JPEC cited as concern
One Albuquerque Metro Court judge said a commissioner called him an “anarchist” and another judge was told he needed to “come to Jesus” during their interviews with the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, which has recommended that voters “do not retain” them.
Metropolitan Court Chief Judge Edward Benavidez and Judge Kenny Montoya were two of the four judges in that courthouse that received the scarlet letter.
In interviews with the Journal this week, both said they had contentious interviews with JPEC’s board and think that voters should keep them in their seats. Benavidez said he was only speaking for himself and not the other judges in the courthouse.
Metropolitan Court judges Linda Rogers and Michelle Castillo Dowler also received “do not retains.” The other 14 judges up for retention in the courthouse earned “retain” designations.
JPEC’s recommendations, released last week, are based on anonymous surveys with attorneys, court staff and “resource staff,” which are essentially law enforcement, as well as interviews with the judges and courtroom observations. They evaluate judges who are up for retention.
Both Benavidez and Montoya said that some of the tension between the board and the judges appears to have stemmed from the judges’ decisions made in the wake of Supreme Court rules that were went into effect last year. The rules said judges can detain people without bail if they are dangerous, but that other defendants shouldn’t be held in jail just because they couldn’t afford to post a bond.
Montoya said he has ordered some defendants stay in jail even if prosecutors hadn’t requested that the person be detained. Benavidez said he still makes defendants post bond in some cases.
“There are those few cases where I wasn’t going to set somebody (free) based on the allega-
tions. And when I explained that to (JPEC), I got beat up, ‘Who are you to say you are above the Supreme Court,’’ Montoya said. “I’m a judge. I was elected and I’m going to do what’s right for this community.”
Benavidez said that the JPEC board called Montoya — who served in the military for 30 years before becoming a judge — an “anarchist” and telling Benavidez that he needed to “come to Jesus” raises questions about JPEC’s biases and integrity.
JPEC is a board of seven lawyers and eight non-lawyers who serve staggered terms and are nominated by the Supreme Court.
Denise Torres, the chair of the board, said she disagreed that there were any particular type of ruling that led to the “do not retain” designation. But she said that while judges can waive confidentiality and discuss their meetings with JPEC, commissioners cannot.
Benavidez said JPEC should instead just gather data from the surveys and present it to the public, without guiding voters on how to cast their ballot.
He also said some of the data attributed to him is misleading. For example, the worst portion of his survey was that only 51 percent of attorneys thought he should be retained and 37 thought he shouldn’t be. But he said of 61 attorneys who responded to his survey, only seven were prosecutors and he’s had some disagreements with defense attorneys for assigning defendants a bond.
Montoya, on the other hand, questioned how his survey results could have led to his “do not retain” designation. Almost two-thirds of attorneys, nearly 90 percent of court staff and about 80 percent of law enforcement thought he should be retained. He also provided the Journal with the notes from his courtroom observations, which were favorable and only chided him for being soft spoken.
“If 90 percent of the attorneys think I’m great, then I’ve sold out,” Montoya said. “The board should be used to develop a more professional system. And it’s not being used that way.”