A Mora County woman embroiled in legal disputes with neighbors says state District Judge Michael Aragon should not be allowed to preside over the cases because he represented one of the defendants in a criminal case before becoming a judge.
Kathleen Dudley has filed motions alerting the court to the relationship and arguing Aragon should recuse himself from her lawsuit against the man and void his ruling in another case involving parties with overlapping interests.
She said Aragon has not responded to those filings, and Flora Gallegos, the chief judge of New Mexico’s 4th Judicial District Court, has not responded to her emails on the topic.
“Although these are two separate cases,” Dudley wrote in an email last week, “there is a clear correlation between them and the parties involved, both of whom have harassed and threatened me relentlessly over the years.”
Dudley’s cases highlight the overlapping roles local judicial officials with long careers play in the sparsely populated 4th Judicial District — which spans San Miguel, Guadalupe and Mora counties and serves a total population of about 36,000 people — and the potential for conflicts of interest that arise as a result.
For example, court records show Gallegos also was involved in an old case tied to Dudley. She was appointed to represent Dudley’s neighbor in a 2010 case involving Dudley and her former husband, in which the neighbor pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
Dudley, a writer, musician and poet, said in an interview she began having issues with neighbors almost immediately after she purchased her property in 1998, and their “harassment” of her got worse when she moved to the property full time in 2019.
These conflicts — largely centered on the use of a road that runs through her more than 100-acre property — have reached the courts several times.
In addition to the 2010 case, the details of which are no longer available online, Dudley and a different neighbor entered a settlement agreement in 2014 regarding the neighbor’s right to use the road through her land.
In August 2019, court records show, neighbors Rick Alcon and Susan Alcon filed a civil complaint and application for a restraining order against her, based on a dispute over their use of the road where, court records say, Dudley had erected a locked gate.
Dudley said Tuesday she put in a new road, one that didn’t run so close to her property. Other residents used the road, she said, but the Alcons refused.
After a bench trial in early September, Aragon ruled the Alcons were able to use the road despite Dudley’s objections. He granted them an easement.
Several days later, Dudley filed an application for a restraining order against Jody Armijo, another road user, alleging Armijo had been harassing her since 2019 by driving past her home, shouting at her, threatening to shoot her dogs and moving fence posts. She also alleged Armijo had tossed a wheelbarrow full of her tools around the property.
Dudley said Tuesday she learned after she filed her complaint against Armijo that the judge had represented him in a criminal case in 2000.
She subsequently filed motions seeking Aragon’s recusal in the Armijo case and requesting his ruling be declared void in the Alcons’ case.
Although Armijo is not a direct witness in the Alcon case, Dudley said, he is a “crossover” witness because he’s part of a cabal of neighbors who are united against her, all people the judge likely knows.
“These people are like the Rockefellers of the community — very well connected,” Dudley said of the Alcons, whose ranch encompasses more than 1,000 acres, according to court records.
The Alcons and Armijo are represented by the same attorney, Jesus Lopez, who declined to comment.
Lopez has responded on behalf of the Alcons in court, saying Dudley has presented no evidence that Aragon’s representation of Armijo more than 20 years ago played any part in his ruling in the couple’s case.
He filed a motion Jan. 4 requesting a hearing on the issue, but court records show no hearing date has been set.
Gallegos did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Aragon’s staff referred questions to the state Administrative Office of the Courts’ spokesman, Barry Massey.
Massey referred questions to 4th Judicial District Court Executive Officer Brenden Murphy. He also pointed to a rule governing judges’ disqualifications and case law on the topic, which indicates judges have discretion when deciding whether to recuse themselves from a case. “Suspicion of bias or prejudice is not enough to disqualify a judge,” according to the case law Massey provided.
Murphy did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Aragon worked as an attorney in the tri-county judicial district for about 20 years before Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed him to fill vacant judgeship in the 4th Judicial District in June.
His sister, Judge Abigail Aragon — who was appointed in 2006 and later elected to her post — also presides over cases in the 4th Judicial District.
Michael Aragon will have to win a race for his post in the next general election to remain on the bench.
This is at least the second time someone has raised concerns that the judge’s close personal ties in the community could affect cases in the district.
The family of a Mora man fatally shot in September along the road leading to Morphy Lake asked the state Attorney General’s Office to take over the case from the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in October, citing concerns the shooter, David Griego, received preferential treatment because he was the nephew of the Aragon siblings.
Griego turned himself in Wednesday, after the New Mexico State Police issued a warrant for his arrest, District Attorney Thomas Clayton said Thursday.
Actual or perceived conflicts of interest are not unusual in the district, where the courts are run by a small number of locals with crisscrossing ties in the region.
A judge from Santa Fe and prosecutors from Taos recently were assigned to handle a fatal shooting involving teens in Ribera — an unincorporated village in San Miguel County — after three local magistrates and the District Attorney’s Office recused themselves from working on the case.
Court records show the judges didn’t state their reasons for removing themselves from the case, in which a West Las Vegas High School football player is accused of killing a teammate at a New Year’s Eve party.
Clayton said his office declined to prosecute the case because the victim is the son of one of its employees.
The problem in her case, Dudley said, is that Aragon didn’t disclose his prior relationship with Armijo or remove himself from the proceedings.
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