New Mexico judge booked in political bribe scandal

[The Northerner]

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge charged with bribery in a scandal tied to former Gov. Bill Richardson pleaded not guilty on Friday, then was booked, fingerprinted and ordered to hand over his passport.

State District Judge Michael Murphy is accused of telling a potential judicial candidate that if she wanted a seat on the bench she needed to donate to the Democratic Party through a political activist linked to Richardson.

Allegations in a special prosecutor's report imply the practice was common in the district during Richardson's time in office and that Edgar Lopez of Las Cruces delivered the payments to the former governor. Special prosecutor Matt Chandler has said the investigation is ongoing.

Richardson called the accusations "outrageous and defamatory" and said the 113 judges selected while he was governor were chosen solely on merit. For his part, Murphy, who was not jailed, declined comment after the hearing, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. Lopez has not returned calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. The judicial candidate Beverly Singleman also has not responded to calls from the AP.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hp3hVtxssUeMXUvinth8j0IWl-4g?docId=40176c7f55e742bb98265cbbc3523b0c

[Warpy]

1. They just never give up

They started all this scandalmongering when Richardson was being considered for a cabinet post after Obama won in 2008. Richardson wisely withdrew his name while the investigation was ongoing. It came up empty where Richardson was concerned, just like we all said it would. Oh, he's hired relatives, but those relatives did their jobs, none were no-show paycheck collectors, which makes his brand of nepotism better than the usual around here.

Now they're going after everybody in his administration, it seems, trying to find someone who might be guilty of the crime they just "know" was committed for Richardson's whole 8 years. You know the right wing drill: first they come up with a crime, then they look for a Democrat to hang it on.

All this stuff is just going to make it harder to get people interested in pursuing the real dirty politicians, just like the fake impeachment of Clinton made all the Democrats gunshy about going after the Bush team, and we know they're guilty of many actionable crimes and should have been removed from office during that first term.

I'm sure they'll find someone who accepted a tchotchke and then awarded a contract. With Richardson, the timeline was backwards: first the contract after bids were collected, and then the contribution to the re election campaign.