Bret H. Dillon

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Bret H. Dillon was a judge of the Magistrate Court in Union County. He replaced Leslie J. Taylor who left office in November of 2010. Dillon was ordered to leave the court in November 2012 by the New Mexico Supreme Court following sanctions from the Judicial Standards Commission.

Removal

Dillon was removed from the Magistrate Court in Union County in November 2012 following a lengthy investigation into his actions surrounding a series of events. In the summer of 2011, Dillon asked clerk Joyce Sowers to shred all documentation relating to a legal case involving the deceased John Riley Newton. Sowers was uncomfortable with this request, and subsequently reported it to the Judicial Standards Commission.

In January of 2012, upon learning of the investigation into his actions, Dillon requested to speak with Sowers privately in the county records vault and requested that she, "...sign an affidavit that her previous statements about his misconduct were untrue and that he had acted out of ignorance of law, not misconduct." This action amounted to requesting that Sowers perjure herself, and though these actions were found to be isolated, they were intolerable by a judge. Dillon was removed in November after he failed to voluntarily step down.

2010 election

Dillon ran unopposed in the general election, receiving 100 percent of the vote.

Main article: New Mexico judicial elections, 2010

Footnotes

New Mexico courts

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Federal courts:

Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Mexico • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Mexico

State courts:

New Mexico Supreme Court • New Mexico Court of Appeals • New Mexico District Courts • New Mexico Magistrate Court • New Mexico Municipal Courts • New Mexico Probate Courts • New Mexico Problem-Solving Courts • New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration Court • Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court

State resources:

Courts in New Mexico • New Mexico judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Mexico