Judge Mitchell retiring

On Feb. 29, Judge Albert J. Mitchell Jr., the only jurist in the sprawling 10th Judicial District, will hang up his robe for the final time after 15 years on the bench.

Mitchell sent a one-page letter on Jan. 10 to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Shannon Bacon, stating he would resign effective March 1.

"I am privileged to work with fine people in the Tenth Judicial District, as well as my judicial colleagues statewide," Mitchell wrote. "In addition, the support of the Executive and Legislature are fundamental to the success of the judiciary.

"I look forward to the next stage of my life," he concluded in his letter.

A state committee will consider applications for Mitchell's replacement and issue recommendations to the governor later this year. Mitchell's eventual successor will be up for election in 2026.

During an interview in his office last week at the Quay County Courthouse in Tucumcari, Mitchell said he decided to retire after shortly turning 65.

"I think it's a really good time for me to do other things," he said. "I have friends that have died on the bench. I have friends that expected me to do the same thing, to be a workaholic until the end. I'm looking forward to surprising them."

Mitchell said he'd been thinking about retirement for a while.

"It's been a challenge of a job," he said. "We are asking our judges to do so much more. And for the smaller districts, they've given us no more resources. At some point, the mule gets tired."

Mitchell, who estimated he presides over 600 to 800 court cases a year, noted his district, which also encompasses De Baca County and his native Harding County, is the only one in New Mexico with just one judge.

"You figure each of those cases affected two people, at least. See 1,600 people a year, times 15 years. That's 24,000 people I've touched ... sometimes as jurors, sometimes as witnesses."

Mitchell later added: "It's truly an honor to be a judge. The amount of trust that our community put into our judges, it's a lot. It's been a real honor to do it."

Mitchell estimated he once spent 30 days per year in a car driving to and from courtrooms in Fort Sumner, Mosquero and Tucumcari. With videoconferencing becoming more widespread during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, that time in the car has dropped but is still "a ridiculously large number."

"We have more miles than any other judicial district" in New Mexico, he said.

While adjudicating criminal cases, Mitchell obviously deals with defendants who are having a very bad day. But those cases bring rewards, as well.

"I've seen a lot of felons who have done very well," he said. "We hear about all the failures. People don't spend any time on the successes. More people successfully complete probation than fail. More families function as a family with a custody order in place than not. So there's a lot of successes.

"The reality is, when somebody comes up to me in the grocery store and says, 'You sent my family member to prison' or 'You sent me to prison,' it's normally a very positive conversation," he added. "When I started, I really didn't expect that. But after a while, I've learned when when someone approaches me and say, 'You sent me to prison,' almost never are they angry."

Mitchell said the most challenging part is "predicting the future of human beings" during court cases.

"I get to see people for a day, two days, and then I'm supposed to predict what they're going to do in four years," he said.

District Attorney Tim Rose stated that Mitchell was "an invaluable asset to our legal system."

"It isn't always easy to preside over our small community - with its quirks and characters - but Judge Mitchell handled it with a steady hand," Rose wrote in an email. "He knows the lay of the land, the folks and the unique challenges we face. Along the way, Judge Mitchell presided with a sense of fair play, impartiality, and a real care for the people he served. His contributions have played a crucial role in maintaining justice in the Tenth Judicial District."

Those 15 years on the bench weren't without bumps along the way. He wasn't retained as judge in 2014 after he received less than 50% of the vote. However, then-Gov. Susana Martinez reappointed him a few months later.

Mitchell defeated Donald Schutte by 7 percentage points in the 2016 GOP primary and was unopposed in the general election. Voters then retained Mitchell in the 2020 election.

In 2019, the New Mexico Supreme Court censured Mitchell for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct. He was accused of saying he would ask the governor to veto capital outlay funds due to Quay County because of a dispute with county officials over court-security funding.

Asked about the censure, Mitchell said: "I think that I was passionate about my staff being physically threatened, and I expressed that to the county manager in a way that the Supreme Court believed is inappropriate."

Mitchell, who received his initial degree at Stanford and juris doctorate at the University of New Mexico, was asked what prompted him to be a judge after years in private law practice.

"When I was in college, I decided I didn't want to work for someone," he responded. "I was a mechanical engineer, and a lawyer is in charge of their life. I got at law school and I moved to Tucumcari, and I found out that my clients believed they were in charge of my life. Instead of having one boss and one supervisor, I ended up with 30 or 40 bosses and supervisors at a time.

"But I love problems, and human beings and our relationships with each other, it's a fun thing to try and solve," he said of being a judge. "I've enjoyed trying to find workable solutions to human interaction."

Mitchell mostly is known around the region by his nickname, "Scooter," that his father gave to him when he was 6 months old, scooting around the crib.

Being better known by a nickname sometimes has drawbacks.

"After one of the elections where I didn't win, a friend of mine came up to me and he was mad, angry. And he says, 'They didn't put your name on the ballot. I wanted to vote for you, Scooter. There's some guy named Albert, but I couldn't find you anywhere on the ballot,'" Mitchell said, smiling.

"Most people know me as Scooter," he added. "I'm looking forward to having Scooter back as my name."