Supreme Court trial date for embattled Gallup District Attorney pushed back to March

SANTA FE — The trial to determine whether an embattled New Mexico prosecutor should be removed from office due to job performance issues will not take place until early next year.

The state Supreme Court on Wednesday delayed the three-day trial for McKinley County District Attorney Bernadine Martin until March. It had initially been scheduled to take place next month.

The state’s highest court granted an unopposed motion from Martin to push back the trial, but said in its order no further delays would be granted.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in August filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to remove Martin from her office for failing to adequately do her job.

Specifically, the petition alleges Martin has violated state procurement laws, created a hostile work environment and relied on contract attorneys after running off all staff attorneys in her office.

Martin, who is the state’s first female Navajo district attorney, has defended her job performance and criticized legislators for essentially defunding her office during this year’s 60-day legislative session.

She has also sought unsuccessfully on two separate occasions to obtain emergency state funding to keep paying staffers.

After her requests were denied, Martin entered into an agreement in September with Jack Fortner, the district attorney in neighboring San Juan County, that ensured employees would continue being paid.

But the two district attorneys have continued to spar in recent weeks over issues pertaining to Martin’s salary, which is stipulated in the state Constitution.

While the district attorney was stripped of most of her funding by lawmakers, she still has the authority — at least for now — to decide how criminal cases in McKinley County are handled. Martin said in recent court filings she is currently handling about 600 criminal cases alone in her northwest New Mexico county since the Legislature defunded her office.

While removing an elected official from office is uncommon in New Mexico, it’s not unprecedented. Most recently, former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was ousted in 2022 for violating the U.S. Constitution’s anti-insurrection clause.

However, the system for determining whether an elected district attorney should be removed from office is largely untested in recent state history.

Under state law, petitions seeking removal of a district attorney are tried in the Supreme Court, not by a jury. Whatever decision the state’s highest court makes in such a case is final.

The Supreme Court trial to determine whether Martin should be removed from office will begin March 2.