Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Alleging an act “contrary to law,” a Quay County woman filed a complaint against a local magistrate judge after she said she was denied access to a courtroom to attend a criminal case that involved a family member.
A Tucumcari district judge issued an interim order days later to address the case, but the New Mexico Supreme Court was asked to review it and may intervene.
Sue Moore filed the complaint Sept. 17 against Quay County Magistrate Judge Timothy J. O’Quinn after she and a relative, an alleged victim in a criminal case, “were not allowed back into the court room where the hearing was to occur until permission was granted by someone in the back” during a Sept. 11 hearing.
The complaint also states that “discussion about the case may have happened before they were allowed back into the court room.”
Tucumcari attorney Donald Schutte filed the complaint on Moore’s behalf. An email last week to Schutte requesting comment was not answered.
The complaint states Moore and the alleged victim would have spoken against the release of the defendant during the Sept. 11 hearing.
The defendant wasn’t named in the complaint, but court records show it is Everett Nox Cato, accused in August of battery against a household member and aggravated battery against a household member by strangulation or suffocation. The latter count is a third-degree felony that could lead up to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
The complaint states that access to the magistrate courtroom is restricted and that a person needs to sign in at the door and wait for someone to approve his or her admittance. The public “cannot freely access or observe court proceedings without first giving their name and waiting for permission to enter the courtroom.” The filing states such restrictions are “contrary to law,” citing the New Mexico Constitution and other statutes.
The complaint demanded the 10th Judicial District Court bar the magistrate court from “interfering with the public’s right to be freely admitted into the courtroom,” it remove locks that prevent that access and prohibit sign-ins as a condition to attend court proceedings.
District Judge Albert Mitchell Jr. issued an interim order Sept. 19. It acknowledged the state “has a strong public policy that government actions will be conducted in public view.”
Mitchell stated the Administrative Office of the Courts “has placed locked doors at certain locations in court facilities for the protection of the public and all users of court facilities” and “operating procedures in the buildings focused on safety not access.”
Mitchell stated the door to the back, public portion of the court “shall remain locked and individuals who wish to enter that area shall be monitored. Magistrate Court staff may request identification or justification from individuals wishing to enter that area.”
However, he said that door will be opened 10 minutes before a court hearing and remain unlocked until 10 minutes afterward or until the building’s front door is locked. Mitchell added: “No inquiry will be made about why anyone is entering the Court during those periods of time. No records will be kept of who enters the court or the nature of the business in entering the court, while the court is in session.”
Mitchell noted his order doesn’t bar a magistrate judge from restricting access to a courtroom, but he or she must enter a written order to do so before a hearing. Such an order must be given to the chief judge of the 10th Judicial District “in the most expeditious fashion” and notify its CEO.
“It is expected that this will only occur in those special and unique circumstances” and “should not be general practice,” Mitchell wrote.
Mitchell, citing the likelihood he might be “the responsible party to address the issues” in the case, officially recused himself a day later.
O’Quinn recused himself from Cato’s case Sept. 23; it was reassigned to De Baca County Magistrate Judge Buddy J. Hall. On Thursday, the state Supreme Court ordered Judge Fred T. Van Soelen of the 9th Judicial District in Clovis to preside over Moore’s case.
Marion Payton, CEO of the 10th Judicial District Court, said Thursday complaints such as Moore’s are rare; she never had encountered one before in her 10 years in the court system.
O’Quinn, contacted Thursday through a magistrate court judicial specialist, declined to comment.
A status hearing for Cato’s case was scheduled for Wednesday in magistrate court. Public defender Anna Aragon was listed as his attorney.