The governor may have gotten this one right.
Gov. Bill Richardson announced Monday that local attorney Sherry Raphaelson was his pick for First District Court judge to replace Timothy Garcia, who was moved up to the state appeals court.
It took Richardson two months to finally make the decision. He got Raphaelson’s name from the selection committee and then balked because they didn’t send more names. After they sent two more, Richardson chose Raphaelson.
Raphaelson has two things going for her. First she’s sat at both tables in a courtroom working prosecution in the late 1990s and doing defense work most recently. That gives a judge some empathy. She’s spent time with victims of crimes, prosecuted criminals and defended both innocent and guilty people.
More importantly, she lives here and knows the north. We may be only 24 miles from Santa Fe but it might as well be the next state. Everyone knows things just operate differently here and Raphaelson knows it.
We wish her luck and hope once she gets settled, she’ll do a good job for the area and catch up on that enormous case load that comes with the job.