Court: Judge to remain on Navajo water case

The New Mexico Court of Appeals has soundly rejected an emergency motion that attempted to disqualify a state judge from oversight of a decades-old water dispute in the San Juan River Basin on the grounds that the judge had failed to disclose that he once worked for the Navajo Nation.

The tribe was awarded significant water rights in the case.

“Appellant’s statement in the motion that Judge [James] Wechsler represented the Navajo Nation is void of any factual foundation,” the court said in an order issued Tuesday.

The order also rejected attorney Victor Marshall’s argument, on behalf of multiple water users associations, that Wechsler, who retired in June after 22 years on the state Court of Appeals, had violated judicial rules by failing to disclose that he had once worked for DNA Legal Services, a nonprofit that has done work on behalf of the tribe, and that Wechsler had “personal extrajudicial knowledge from living on the reservation” that led him to be biased in favor of the tribe.

That argument was “void of any factual foundation,” the order said.

The order also rebuked Marshall for having wasted the court’s time with the motion, calling it “frivolous” and ordering him to pay the Navajo Nation’s legal costs associated with opposing his motion.

“By filing a frivolous motion, Mr. Marshall has needlessly caused this Court and the parties to expend resources and in so doing has violated the Rules of Professional Conduct,” the order said. “Further, and more troubling, Mr. Marshall has attempted to discredit a judge with absolutely no basis for doing so.”

Marshall, who has represented The Santa Fe New Mexican, did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday.