Eddy County judge facing discipline hearing retires

Eddy County Magistrate Judge Henry Castaneda

ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Eddy County Magistrate Judge Henry Castañeda is retiring from the bench several weeks before he was to face a disciplinary hearing at the state Supreme Court.

The complaining petition filed by the Judicial Standards Commission against Castañeda details more than 100 emails, including dozens of raunchy, racist and sexist cartoons and jokes, along with personal emails and political emails sent to friends from his official judge email address.

The complaint against him says that despite one-on-one training sessions and access to IT experts, Castañeda claimed he just didn’t know how to delete or block emails and would just forward them to his personal email.

Castañeda, who has been a judge since 2003, submitted his letter of resignation in early January, and it was submitted to his official disciplinary file Tuesday with an effective date of Feb. 4.

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Eddy County judge facing discipline hearing retires