CATRON COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that a Catron County magistrate judge abused her power but will not be removed from the bench.
The justices ruled that Judge Susan Griffin used her judicial login credentials to give herself an advantage in a pending lawsuit involving her effort to evict someone from one of her properties.
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The judicial standards commission found she created a fraudulent document instead of creating a civil one that wouldn’t be used in an eviction case. Judge Griffin claimed it was all a mistake, as she was only 5 months into her first term as judge.
“As a matter of law, there were not sufficient findings with the term fraudulently, and concludes, therefore, the commission’s conclusions as to count one are vacated,” said New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice David K. Thomson.
During a pretrial hearing in her lawsuit, a judge asked her about the document and if she created it. Judge Griffin denied creating the document, despite the fact that her name was auto-populated on the document when she created it, and blamed court clerks.
“Respondent further eroded the credibility of the judicial system by concealing the truth from another judge and officer of the court,” Thomson added.
The New Mexico Supreme Court decided not to remove Judge Griffin from the bench.
but did suspend her without pay for 90 days, not including her previous suspension in this case.
She will also have to go through additional training on the court systems, be appointed a mentor by the New Mexico Supreme Court, and have to write an apology letter to all of the clerks she falsely accused.
This eviction case involved Griffin’s son, former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin.
He was mentioned in the lawsuit by the defendant.