AG's office investigating Gallup DA for possible removal

State Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s office is investigating the conduct of Gallup’s embattled district attorney after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham requested his office initiate proceedings to remove the prosecutor from office.

Correspondence reviewed by the Journal shows Lujan Grisham last week formally requested the New Mexico Department of Justice “promptly consider” initiating a removal action against Bernadine Martin, the McKinley County district attorney.

“Rightly or wrongly, the Legislature defunded DA Martin’s office during the 2025 legislative session,” Lujan Grisham wrote.

So, funding for the office will end July 1 “and an untold number of cases will likely be dismissed on speedy trial grounds unless DA Martin agrees to assign pending cases” to San Juan County District Attorney Jack Fortner, she wrote.

So far, that hasn’t happened, but Torrez responded in a June 17 letter that his office has initiated an investigation into Martin’s conduct to determine whether there is a sufficient factual basis to initiate “extraordinary removal proceedings” for the state Supreme Court to consider.

“However,” Torrez wrote, “given the painstaking and time-consuming nature of gathering the facts necessary to make a determination (about removal), and the special nature of the removal action...we are unlikely to complete this work before July 1.”

Torrez urged that the governor and Martin to work “with all necessary speed” to find alternative funding to “mitigate disruptions” to the McKinley County DA’s Office while his investigation proceeds.

“I share your concern that the Legislature’s withdrawal of funds for this district attorney’s office will adversely affect crime victims, law enforcement, and overall public safety in McKinley County,” Torrez wrote to the governor. “Notably, the lack of funding does not constitute grounds for removal under the statute.”

Under state law, district attorneys can be removed from office for any of six grounds, including failure, neglect or refusal to discharge the duties of office; gross incompetency or gross negligence, Torrez wrote.

Martin, who was reelected to a second term in 2024, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

But Martin filed a petition with the Supreme Court earlier this week, arguing that the Legislature and the governor violated the state Constitution’s separation of powers provision by removing funding for her office from the $10.8 billion budget bill for the next fiscal year.

Lujan Grisham said in her letter that the decision to defund Martin’s second division 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office came after state Sen. George Muñoz, a Democrat from Gallup, “claimed that cases in (Martin’s) jurisdiction were going unprosecuted, that her office had no employees and that ‘criminals roam(ed) unchecked... because of a prosecutor’s ineptitude.’”

In an apparent effort to continue supporting the work of the McKinley County division’s office, the Legislature shifted the funding to the office of neighboring San Juan County District Attorney Jack Fortner, Lujan Grisham wrote.

“My Office confirmed DA Fortner is willing to comply with the Legislature’s requests and assist McKinley County with prosecutions,” the governor wrote. “However, the problem remains that, as the elected District Attorney, DA Martin is statutorily obligated to oversee criminal proceedings in her district.” Efforts to transfer the money to her office from Fortner’s via a budget adjustment haven’t been successful, stated Lujan Grisham.

In a June 12 letter to Martin, Billy Jimenez, chief of civil affairs for Torrez’s office, advised her of the investigation and urged her to immediately submit a request to be added to the agenda of the State Board of Finance to obtain emergency operating funds.

“We recognize your right to due process and the importance of ensuring your office remains operational,” Jimenez wrote.

Martin has complained that she has had difficulty recruiting staff attorneys. Last fall, the office had 2,822 assigned cases per attorney, according to the Legislative Finance Committee.

Martin received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver and her law degree from the University of Arizona. She served McKinley County first as an assistant district attorney and then a deputy district attorney and served as a chief prosecutor of the Navajo Nation.