New Mexico Supreme Court upholds removal of former McKinley County judge

The New Mexico Supreme Court kept former McKinley County Magistrate Judge Brent Detsoi permanently out of office, upholding the judicial discipline process that removed him from the bench and barred him from ever holding or exercising judicial authority in New Mexico, including officiating weddings. The July 10 opinion backed a February 25 order and confirmed the state’s top court can review misconduct cases even when a judge claims the process itself is biased.

The court found Detsoi committed willful misconduct in 13 cases. Investigators found he raised jurisdictional questions on his own during criminal arraignments, decided defendants were Native American, and then dismissed the prosecutions without notice or hearings for the parties involved. Testimony at the disciplinary hearing put the number at as many as 63 criminal cases.

The commission found Detsoi continued after prior appeals and after judges and court personnel told him to hold evidentiary hearings before dismissing cases for lack of jurisdiction. The commission found a “pattern and practice” of misconduct, four unauthorized subpoenas to New Mexico State Police officers to support his jurisdictional theory, and a separate due-process violation in which he conducted a bench trial and sentenced a defendant without the defendant’s attorney present.

Detsoi argued that the commission’s investigative and adjudicatory roles created the appearance of bias and violated due process. The Supreme Court rejected that challenge, saying the commission has broad discretion under the state constitution and that there was no evidence of actual or inherent bias. The justices also said the Supreme Court itself serves as the final safeguard in disciplinary matters.

Detsoi was elected to the magistrate court in November 2022 and was suspended without pay in October 2024, after the commission filed its petition for temporary suspension on Sept. 17, 2024. His lawyer later received an extension to respond on Sept. 26, 2024. Separate allegations in 2024 totaled 23 violations of the state judicial code of conduct, including asking defendants their race and automatically dismissing traffic citations if they identified as Native American.