Española judge resigns over checkout line shove

Phaedra Haywood, The Santa Fe New Mexican
·4 min read

Mar. 29—Española Municipal Judge Stephen Salazar resigned Friday as part of an arrangement with the state Judicial Standards Commission in which he agreed to never seek another position as judge in lieu of further discipline in connection with a 2019 incident in which he admitted shoving a city employee.

Salazar had been on the bench for about 19 years, primarily overseeing traffic tickets and other misdemeanor charges. The commission previously had put him on probation, public records show.

The shoving incident occurred Dec. 6, 2019, when Salazar was in line at Lowe's Home Improvement in Española, according to the commission's online case file. The act was in reaction to a "prank" pulled on him by an employee in the city's General Services Department, who also happened to be at the store.

Arturo Meza was behind Salazar in the checkout line and had slipped a lollipop into the judge's pocket as Salazar was completing his purchase of supplies for the court at the counter, according to a letter the commission sent to Salazar about the allegations. When Salazar became aware something was in his pocket, he returned the candy to the display and then angrily shoved a laughing Meza, the letter said. He also told Meza's supervisor he wanted him to be written up.

Salazar admitted in his official response to the commission he had shoved Meza. He said he was upset by the prank because he could have faced serious consequences if he had been accused of shoplifting. He also said he had been sleep-deprived and distraught at the time over the imminent death of his father, for whom he had been caring.

"I know I should not have touched him and I would not do it again if I had the chance to go back in time," Salazar wrote in his response to the Judicial Standards Commission in March 2020. "It was a dark emotional time for me," he added.

The commission is made up of state Supreme Court justices, but Chief Justice Michael Vigil recused himself from considering the case against Salazar, court records show.

Salazar did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

Española Municipal Court Administrator Anna Squires said Mayor Javier Sánchez and the City Council are expected to appoint and ratify, respectively, a replacement for Salazar within a month or two. The person appointed to the position would have to win an election in March 2022 to stay on the bench.

Squires said Salazar was someone with civic pride who organized community cleanups.

"This came as a surprise to me. We are still trying to figure out the details," Sánchez said. "He'd been in office for many years. We had a good professional relationship, but beyond that we didn't really hang out. ...This was his decision. We wish him the best."

According to online court records, the Judicial Standards Commission had placed Salazar on probation twice in the past.

In 2013, the commission suspended him without pay for 90 days and placed him on probation for the remainder of the term he was serving after he admitted authorizing an order directing a towing company to release a motorcycle owned by an acquaintance. He had falsely stated a hearing had been held on the matter.

"[The judge] embossed the official seal of the Española Municipal Court upon the order even though there was no case pending existing in that court for the matter," the state Supreme Court said in the 2013 opinion.

The opinion said when Salazar signed the false order, he was on probation "following a trial before the Commission in November 2009 in Inquiry Nos. 2006-075, 2007-033, and 2007-086," and was being supervised by a retired judge from the 8th Judicial District.

In the previous case, the commission wrote in its 2013 annual report, it had found Salazar "willfully failed to afford due process of law to criminal defendants, such as depriving criminal defendants of the right to counsel and the right to trial."

The commission also found Salazar "attempted to use his judicial office to assist a party's interest in a domestic violence matter to try to locate the other party at a domestic violence shelter."

In the 2009 case, Salazar had been placed on probation for one year and was ordered to complete a course on ethics at his own expense, complete a course on domestic violence and pay legal costs of $2,000, according to the report.

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