flying circus
Trump picks former Sen. Kelly Loeffler for small business administratorMEXICO CITY (AP) — Over 18,000 people in Mexico have registered online to run for Supreme Court seats and federal judgeships in the country's contentious new selection process , but a random drawing in the end will determine who gets on the ballot, officials said Monday. The ruling party pushed through a constitutional reform in September to make all federal judges stand for election, replacing the system where court employees and lawyers mainly move up through the ranks. Current court employees and their supporters have staged dozens of demonstrations against the reforms, calling them part of a ruling-party campaign to weaken checks and balances and eliminate independent regulatory and oversight bodies. Now, candidates for Supreme Court seats and federal judgeships need only a law degree, a grade point average of 3.2, “five years of professional experience” and five letters of recommendation from neighbors or friends. That, and some luck in the final drawing. Officials rejected criticism that has called the process rushed or amateurish for the often highly technical posts that can hear cases including intellectual property, organized crime and Constitutional law. “The results have been spectacular,” said Arturo Zaldivar, a top advisor to President Claudia Sheinbaum. According to the plan, evaluation committees will have just over a month to review thousands of resumes and whittle the field to about 10 candidates or less for each for the 881 judgeships and nine seats on the Supreme Court. Then 1,793 names chosen at random from those selected will appear on the ballot on June 1. Critics warn that many who land on the ballot will be unknowns who perhaps have never argued a case in the courts they seek to run. “You don’t elect a doctor or a surgeon for an operation based on their popularity, you elect them based on their technical expertise, their ability, their knowledge,” said Sergio Méndez Silva, the legal coordinator for the civic group Foundation for Justice. “That also applies for a judge.” With candidates now having to run election campaigns, critics warn there's a chance drug cartels or political parties could finance them to get friendly judges onto the bench. There are also concerns that the evaluation committees deciding who makes the cut for the selection to appear on ballots may not be impartial. Most committee members were appointed by the legislative or executive branches, controlled by the ruling Morena party. Some critics argue that the current justice system, which is riddled with nepotism, corruption and a lack of accountability, needs to be changed. “We need a justice system that gives results,” said Martínez Garza, an academic and former head of the human rights commission in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon who has registered to run for a Supreme Court seat. Trials in Mexico can last for years, and the ruling party has added to the growing list of crimes for which bail is not allowed, meaning that a large percentage of the prison population is people awaiting trial.
A spelling error on a police report resulted in a man being convicted of a third DWI twice in less than a month – once in the 11th Judicial District Court and once in San Juan County Magistrate Court. District Judge Curtis Gurley accepted a Sept. 9 plea agreement from Rolando Benally, 43, of Rock Point, Arizona, who admitted to a third offense of DWI and was sentenced Sept. 19 to 364 days of probation. Benally was arrested again on Oct. 31 for DWI. The arresting officer reportedly entered his name as Rolondo Benally, which resulted in a records mix-up, according to Senior Trial Prosecutor Will Robinson. The same Benally was charged with a third DWI for a second time, and pleaded guilty to the charge, which is a misdemeanor, in San Juan County Magistrate Court. “He has six or seven arrests for DWI, how is it still a misdemeanor?” Gurley asked during a Nov. 25 hearing. “There is a new case, where he somehow pled to a misdemeanor, where he has already been convicted,” Gurley said. “I don’t understand what is going on.” The first case was a charge from June 14, when Benally was picked up at 10:47 p.m. near West Bloomfield Boulevard and Ruth Lane in Bloomfield. He was driving a black Dodge Challenger and failed to obey the traffic signals, according to the statement of probable cause. The arresting officer stated Benally’s speech was slurred and his eyes were “bloodshot” and “watery” and there was a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his vehicle,” court records state. He failed a field sobriety test and had a blood alcohol count of .20 upon arrest. He was charged with a fourth DWI, which was pleaded down to a third, according to court records. This case was sent to District Court, and Gurley accepted the plea agreement. After being sentenced to probation, Benally violated his conditions of release by driving drunk again on Oct. 31. He was stopped at 10:07 a.m. driving a black Dodge Challenger in the area of County Roads 5500 and 5467. The arresting officer noted he was able to “smell a strong alcoholic beverage coming from the driver’s side window,” according to the statement of probable cause. Benally failed the field sobriety test and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24. Benally was allowed to enter a guilty plea in Magistrate Court, again admitting to a third DWI, a misdemeanor, that should have been a felony. He was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, according to court records. Robinson told Judge Gurley that “a problem in the system created the mischarge.” “Your honor I noticed this discrepancy earlier,” Robinson said. “There is a spelling problem with his name.” Gurley pointed out it is important to make corrections when officers misspell names and maintain records by the Social Security Number and birth date. Gurley ruled that Benally violated his probation in the June case and ordered he be held in the San Juan County Detention Center. He also asked Robinson to “file something, so the file is clean.” A status hearing for Benally was set at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 9 in Gurley’s courtroom in Aztec.Top war-crimes court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in Israel-Hamas fighting
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