DWI Resource Center Releases 2004 Metro Court Judges' DWI Performance

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2004

Contact:    Linda Atkinson, Executive Director - (505) 881-1084

Albuquerque, NM - The DWI Resource Center, Inc. today released its biannual ranking of the performance of Bernalillo County Metro Court judges in handling DWI cases.

The ranking is based on two types of performance in DWI cases: conviction rates (the proportion of DWI cases a judge handled that resulted in a conviction) and recidivism rates (the proportion of DWI cases handled by a judge where the offender was subsequently arrested for DWI). The Center analyzed cases from January 1991 through April 2004 from information sent from the Metro Court to the NM Motor Vehicle Division.

The best overall ranks were obtained (in order) by former Judge Keesha Ashanti, Judges Frank Gentry, Marie Baca, Judith Nakamura and Christina Jaramillo.

The overall rankings are based on the average of the conviction and recidivism rankings, except for judges Wayne Griego and Christina Jaramillo who were excluded from the recidivism rankings because they had only recent DWI cases.

Because of the dates of the cases examined by the DWI Resource Center, some of the judges listed in the rankings (see attached) are no longer on the Metro Court. Some have moved on or are running for District Court.

Judges having the highest conviction ranking of the 16 judges in the final analysis were (in order) Frank Gentry, Keesha Ashanti, Cecelia Niemczyk, Marie Baca and Sandra Clinton.

Fourteen judges were compared to each other for the number of cases handled which involved offenders who were subsequently arrested again DWI. Those with the lowest proportion of offenders rearrested were (in order) Judith Nakamura, Victoria Grant, Keesha Ashanti, Barbara Brown and Marie Baca.

The records of the Metro judges-in terms of both convictions and recidivism-were compared to each other rather than to an absolute standard in this analysis, said Steven Flint, analyst for the DWI Resource Center.

"Some DWI cases should be dismissed because of innocence, arrest problems, evidence weaknesses, death before trial, missing witnesses at trial, etc., so a 100% conviction rate should not be expected of any judge," said Flint. "Likewise, some chronic offenders are likely to repeat their crimes eventually no matter what, so a 0% recidivism rate should not be expected for any judge. For these reasons, judges are compared to each other in this analysis. And, since cases are fairly randomly assigned to judges, differences from one judge to another in conviction rate or recidivism are likely due to differences in the judges' performance rather than to differences in the people before them."

Linda Atkinson, Executive Director of the DWI Resource Center, states, "when we look at a judge's conviction rate and it looks good (on the high end)-that's only the start, we move on to the next step and determine if the court had a deterrent effect-that's why it's important to look beyond just the conviction rate. After analyzing the re-arrest rate of offenders seen by these judges, it provides a much more telling aspect of what impact a judge had on deterring an offender. Being tried (in court) should have a deterrent effect."

"Accountability has become a watchword in today's government, but all too often we forget about it when it comes to judges," she says. "That's why it's important to review a judge's performance on the bench regarding DWI. It's a major piece of the puzzle when it comes to reducing DWI death and injury."

The full report can be downloaded and viewed online at the DWI Resource Center website. # # #

The DWI Resource Center is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 New Mexico organization formed to reduce the social and economic impact of DWI through public awareness, education, prevention programs and research. The Center also provides assistance to victims and serves as a central clearinghouse for information on DWI and victims' rights.