Saturday, July 7, 2007
County Judgeships Draw Applicants
Journal
Staff Writer
Applicants for two new
judgeships in Bernalillo County offer a range of rationales for
seeking the position, but Bob Schwartz's answer is by far the
shortest.
Schwartz, former district attorney,
ex-crime policy adviser to the governor, mayoral candidate and
sometime standup comic offered a one-sentence answer: "As a voice on
behalf of the justice system in New Mexico, it is now time to
listen."
The Judicial Selection Commission will
interview 22 applicants on Monday and Tuesday at the Bernalillo County
courthouse for positions in family court and in the criminal division.
The new judgeships were created by the
Legislature.
Interviews are open to the
public.
Schwartz gets the prize for the heaviest
submission as well as the shortest sentence.
Applicants were asked for writing samples, so Schwartz submitted 43
newspaper columns, "Flaw and Order," published in
2002.
He is one of a handful of current or
former prosecutors and a couple of former public defenders apparently
angling for the criminal slot. Ann Badway, a former assistant district
attorney now at the Attorney General's Office, has applied for a post,
as has narcotics prosecutor Alfred Quintana.
Applicants with background in family law, including at least four
already working for the court, are among those aiming for the family
court position.
Marie Ward, a staff attorney for
judges in the civil division and a former attorney in the Child
Support Enforcement Division, believes her birdseye view of the court
allows her to see what judges expect of themselves and "envision the
kind of judge I would like to be."
Rosemary
Cosgrove-Aguilar and Reed Sheppard are domestic violence commissioners
for the court in Albuquerque; Betsy Musselman is a domestic relations
hearing officer in Taos.
Others, such as
Elizabeth Whitefield and Gerald Lavelle, are domestic relations
practitioners in private firms hers large, his
solo.
The range of experience within the
profession is matched by a wealth of experience unrelated to
law.
Charles Brown, a former state and federal
prosecutor, got a welding degree before law school and has taught in
American Bar Association programs in Bosnia, Azerbaijan and
Istanbul.
Bill Parnall, besides stints heading
the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Hispanic Bar
Association, also writes, performs and records music, often with his
daughter.
Stan Harada, hearing officer for the
city's red light and speeding photo enforcement program, was once a
woodworker and furniture designer.
Applicants
stress their experience, their judgment, their sense of fairness,
their willingness to take on new challenges.
Ruth Pregenzer, a former public defender and longtime trial lawyer,
says her years as a litigator have not made her cyncial but instead
strengthened her belief in the ideals of
justice.
And besides, she says, "I have a pretty
good sense of
humor."
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