Community figure goes up against voice of experience
Drug offences, public safety set the tone
In the Democratic primary for Santa Fe Magistrate Court’s Division 1 bench, the presiding judge of the court will face a former bail bondsmen who says he wants to put a greater emphasis on “public safety and accountability.”
David Segura is being challenged by Jerry Gonzales, his first opponent since his initial election as judge in 2006. In 2009, he became the court’s presiding judge.
Before taking the bench, Segura spent more than 20 years in law enforcement and retired from the Santa Fe Police Department as a captain in 2000, after work across several divisions, including the Special Weapons and Tactics team, Special Investigations and Internal Affairs.
Post-retirement, he worked for New Mexico Association of Counties and operated a life skills training business and another business with which he helped law firms find individuals for serving legal papers.
Segura said he retired from SFPD because of the dangers that SWAT operations presented for the father of two young sons, now 24 and 22. He and wife Carmela have been married 31 years.
As a magistrate judge, Segura said, he’s particularly proud of forming the DWI/Drug Court in 2008.
He ran the program, a nine-month process during which participants are required to attend therapy, participate
in community service, complete regular drug tests and are offered educational opportunities to combat recidivism, until fall 2017.
Segura said he handed off the program to Judge George Anaya so he could work on establishing a similar court aimed specifically at addressing opioid abuse, which he said will be the focus of his next term if he is elected.
“We’re trying to plead those down to misdemeanors,” Segura said. “Get (offenders) back re-engaged in education, get them re-engaged in the workplace, and that way we’ve addressed many of the underlying issues.”
Aside from the experience he gained as an officer and judge, he thinks educational opportunities he’s pursued while serving on the bench “clearly” set him apart from his opponent. That includes training courses at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nev. Specifically, he touted a certificate in judicial development-special court trial skills earned in 2011 from the NJC. At the time, he was only the second magistrate judge in the state to obtain the certification.
“It’s a long time to gather this experience,” he said. “It doesn’t come overnight.”
Segura is also interested in developing specific court programs for domestic violence offenders and veterans. However, he said resources aren’t currently available due to flat budgets from the Legislature, which allocates funding for DWI/Drug Court.
Campaign finance reports show that Segura has raised only $800 for the race, compared with about $13,000 by challenger Gonzales. Segura said he didn’t intend to raise funds at all, but decided to after signs went up for Gonzales and supporters wanted to know if he was still running.
‘Enmeshed’ in community
When it comes to facing a longterm incumbent, Gonzales said he isn’t nervous, mainly because he feels he can relate to his fellow residents and the issues his hometown faces. “I shop at WalMart with everybody,” Gonzales said. “I eat at the same restaurants the majority of these people eat at. I’m enmeshed within the community.”
Gonzales has recently been in search of a new career. He worked for his parents’ business, Jerry Gonzales Bail Bonding, for 26 years. He took over the business about 14 years ago. The nearly 40-year-old company closed last summer.
Bail reform via a voter-passed constitutional amendment in late 2016 led to the closure, he said, citing the amendment’s stipulation that says non-dangerous people awaiting trial for lower-level offenses should be released on unsecured bonds.
After considering other ideas over the past year, like opening up a barbershop or sandwich shop, he says, he decided he had the judicial system experience to be an effective magistrate judge. “I’ve been face-to-face with thousands of people,” Gonzales said. “I’ve dealt with their families. I understand the issues here in the city.”
As someone who has sat in courtrooms for his bail bond business, Gonzales said, he doesn’t believe the courts are playing a large enough role in holding people accountable, particularly those who don’t comply with conditions of release.
“We have law enforcement that continues picking up the same people on a regular basis,” Gonzales said. “That means our court system gets clogged up with somebody who continues to pick up case after case.”
He said his former job as a bail bondsman would not influence the types of terms of release that he sets for defendants in criminal cases. “My only agenda is to serve this community to the best of my ability,” he said. Gonzales is a father of two, ages 23 and 20, and the grandfather of one.
In 2011, three Edgewood residents sued Gonzales and his business, claiming two of his solicitors and a contracted “fugitive recovery” team raided the wrong home, threatened people there and held one while looking for the fugitive.
Gonzales’ court response said residents of the home were harboring the fugitive, the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office had been notified ahead of time and the homeowner gave the group permission to enter. It also says one resident was restrained because he threw a glass bottle at the group. The suit was settled out of court.
Gonzales told the Journal recently that he couldn’t discuss details of the settlement. But he noted the Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office and State Police investigated the plaintiffs’ claims and cited no wrongdoing.
“I was found to have done my business,” he said.