Four applicants vie for vacant Family Court judge position

Feb. 9—Four people are vying to be appointed to a Family Court judgeship in the First Judicial District, a post that became vacant with the retirement of Judge Sylvia LaMar.

The Judicial Nominating Commission will interview the applicants later this month and forward one or more of the candidates to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for consideration. The governor will have 30 days to appoint someone to the post.

The position pays $172,000 a year, according to the state Sunshine Portal. The judge will preside over a docket consisting mainly of divorce, child custody, domestic violence and kinship guardianship cases in the First Judicial District, which includes Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties.

The appointee will start work soon after being chosen, but after working for one year, will have to win election to stay on the bench and will be required to run for retention every six years thereafter.

Elizabeth Allen, 41, of Los Alamos is one of the people seeking the position. Allen is serving her second terms as a Los Alamos Municipal Court judge and would have to leave her position about two years early if selected.

Allen graduated from Sandia High School in Albuquerque in 2001 and obtained a bachelor's degree at Brigham Young University before graduating from the Pepperdine School of Law in California in 2008, according to her application. She moved to Los Alamos from Idaho in 2014 and plays string bass for the Los Alamos Symphony.

"I am good at explaining the law to people and finding solutions to problems they face," Allen wrote in her application. "I believe by moving from Municipal Court to District Court, I will have a unique understanding of all levels of the court and the way that people in New Mexico interact with the justice system."

Jose G. Puentes, a senior litigation lawyer in the Risk Management Division of the state General Services Department, also is seeking the judgeship.

Puentes, 44, was born in Mexico and came to the United States at age 5, according to his application. He graduated from Moriarty High School and earned bachelor's and law degrees from the University of New Mexico.

He has worked for the General Services Department since 2019, according to his application. Before that he worked at the state Attorney General's Office, now the state Department of Justice, as a litigation specialist for five years. He also has worked as a prosecutor in the state's 2nd and 13th Judicial Districts.

"I am specifically applying for the Family Law judicial position because family law has impacted me on a personal level," he wrote in his application. "I was raised in a family with over ten adopted and foster siblings — all together, including biological children, our family numbered eighteen."

Another candidate is Santa Fe attorney Denise Thomas, 52. She graduated from high school in Texas and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas in 1993 before obtaining a law degree at Tulane University in 1998.

She worked as a law clerk for retired U.S. District Judge Martha A. Vázquez from 2006 to 2014 and has been in private practice since then, primarily at her own firm. She also worked at the Santa Fe law firm of Sommer, Karnes & Associates from 2017 to 2019.

She is a family law attorney and mediator and represents clients in many of the same type of cases she would see if appointed to the bench, including divorce, custody and guardianship cases, according to her application.

"Since the time I was an undergraduate student, I envisioned one day seeking to become a district court judge," she wrote in her application. "While I have worked in many areas of law over the years, I have come to the place in my career where I find I am most fulfilled by working with children and families."

The fourth candidate is Marcos D. Martinez, but his application was unavailable from the University of New Mexico School of Law, which operates the nominating commissions. Attempts to contact Martinez for comment were unsuccessful Friday.

The commission will interview the applicants Feb. 22 at the First Judicial District Courthouse in Santa Fe. The meeting is open to the public, and people will have an opportunity to speak about any of the candidates.