Thousands of criminal cases changing hands

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Five judges in the state's most overloaded courthouses are changing jobs. The District Attorney's Office is already taking action.

“It's something I don't think has ever happened in my lifetime,” said DA Kari Brandenburg.

While most of the country was focused on the presidential race this election, attorneys in town were waiting to see who would be booted off the bench and who would take over.

Metro Court Judges Ben Chavez and Christina Argyres won spots in district court. Chavez beat Judge Sam Winder so he is leaving.

District Court Judge Monica Zamora won a spot on the Court of Appeals so she is also leaving. Last week Judge Bob Schwartz died; his replacement hasn't been named. These judges handle thousands of cases.

“It's going to make a huge difference in our day to day operations,” said Brandenburg. “It’s going to be hard for judges coming in who don't have experience in district court to assume an incredibly heavy case load and to keep those cases moving and trials. ”

Judge Winder, who lost to Ben Chavez, was still getting up to speed after he took over for Pat Murdoch who retired last year.

Here is what he told us this summer: “I was surprised at the amount of work that the attorneys that appear in front of me have to accomplish and it did surprise me as to how many cases we have to deal with.”

Brandenburg says her staff has been anticipating the gridlock, “resolve cases they can resolve now.”

She says every defendant is entitled to a speedy trial and with the backlog some may try to get their cases dismissed.

“If we have the choice of losing a case outright or working some kind of plea we are going to try and work that plea because we will get a felony conviction and some sort of supervision if not jail time that's better than just seeing the case go south for no reason with no result,” said Brandenburg.

Brandenburg says cases did get dismissed after Judge Pat Murdoch retired last year because they were not tried fast enough. Something her office is working to make sure doesn't happen with these changes.

The newly elected judges will take their spots on the bench at the beginning of the year.