Ex-judge rape case still under review

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Prosecutors in Santa Fe said they are reviewing a case involving a retired Albuquerque criminal judge who was accused then cleared of raping a prostitute, a newspaper reported.

District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco declined to discuss specifics, but police have turned over documents and recorded interviews related to the original case against former Second Judicial District Court Judge Pat Murdoch, the Albuquerque Journal ( http://bit.ly/LW62rb ).reported Thursday.

In addition, Albuquerque police spokeswoman Tasia Martinez said the department handed over new material on female defendants who participated in Murdoch's drug court program.

"We've given them everything we have, and now we're just waiting to see what will stick," Martinez said.

She declined to discuss specifics about the investigation or elaborate on any new claims.

Pacheco did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press seeking comment.

Murdoch's attorney Ahmad Assed issued a statement saying the former judge will be vindicated and should have never been charged. The AP called Assed's office Thursday, but there was no voicemail and no operator answered.

Drug court is an alternative sentencing program that requires people facing drug-possession charges to attend regular counseling and meetings and complete community service. Defendants also meet regularly with judges and probation officers and are sometimes monitored with electronic ankle bracelets.

Murdoch's house, office and telephone records were searched during the investigation, and Pacheco was appointed as special prosecutor days after Murdoch's arrest in July 2011.

The rape investigation began last year after a confidential informant told detectives about a video of Murdoch having sex with a purported prostitute, according to a criminal complaint.

Police purchased the video for $400. Police said the woman later told detectives she had been solicited by Murdoch on a website and went to his house about eight times.

Police said she told detectives that, during their first encounter, Murdoch insisted on performing oral sex without her consent.

A charge of witness intimidation against Murdoch stemmed from a conversation police said the woman had with him in which she posed a hypothetical situation involving a woman making allegations against him. She "said that Mr. Murdoch replied he would use the police and his connections to take care of the situation," the complaint states.

Days after his arrest, Murdoch's attorneys filed a motion to have the case dismissed for lack of probable cause in part because the second charge against Murdoch, intimidation of a witness, cannot be shown through the hypothetical situations the woman allegedly posed to the judge.

Moreover, the former judge's attorneys said, the rape charge stemmed from what the woman described as the first of her eight encounters with Murdoch. That was not reflected in the criminal complaint, which was the original charging document in the case.

After 26 years as a judge, Murdoch retired weeks after his arrest.