The state Supreme Court issued a public censure Monday of Questa Municipal Judge Michael G. Rael Sr., finding the judge abused the prestige of his office when he repeatedly mentioned his judicial title while speaking to officers investigating a fatal crash in which he was involved by referring to himself as “Judge Rael” and mentioning he was a judge in Questa.
The Supreme Court’s formal reprimand — issued in response to a complaint filed with the Judicial Standards Commission — also finds Rael violated the rules of judicial conduct when he broke the law in the case by driving 55 mph in a 45 mph zone prior to the crash.
The censure — which is stipulated, meaning Rael agreed to its terms — will be published in the state Bar Bulletin, an official publication of the State Bar of New Mexico and a primary source of information for the state’s legal community, including judges and lawyers.
Rael, who is also a musician, told police he had struck Nathan Kee Charley near the El Prado Post Office in Taos County while on his way home from performing in Española on Aug. 25, 2023, according previous reports. Charley died at the scene.
Taos County Sheriff’s Deputy Sylvia Trujillo wrote in her report an officer from the Taos Police Department was first on the scene and recognized Charley as a man officers had removed from his girlfriend’s apartment at her request earlier that night in connection with a “verbal domestic.”
When Rael called 911 to report the incident, he said: “This is Judge Rael, Michael Rael. I’m here in El Prado just past the post office, and I think just hit a guy. I didn’t see him at all, at all,” according to a recording of the call.
Rael repeatedly violated a rule governing the conduct of judges “when he repeatedly referred to himself as a judge, going so far as to say he was the judge in Questa and that he had held that position for twenty-three years,” according to the Supreme Court’s censure.
“Judge Rael agrees that these violations erode the public’s confidence, reflect negatively on the New Mexico judiciary as a whole and are prejudicial to the effective administration of justice,” the Supreme Court wrote in the censure.
Rael did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story Monday.
Charley’s estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Rael in February 2024 accusing him of negligent use of a motor vehicle and contending he attempted to use his position as a judge to influence the investigation. The lawsuit also alleges the judge lied to officers about having insurance and stopping immediately after realizing he’d hit something to minimize his culpability.
“In fact he never turned around, he continued to drag Nathan’s body over 150 feet then came to stop and called 911,” according to the complaint, which is pending in state District Court.
The lawsuit contends when Taos police officers arrived, Rael gave them proof of an insurance policy that had expired in 1986 and was from another vehicle to make it seem like he had insurance, when he was actually driving uninsured at the time.
Officers did not conduct field sobriety tests on Rael to rule out impairment, nor ticket him for speeding or driving without insurance, Frances C. Carpenter, the attorney for Charley’s estate, said Monday. That seems to confirm he received special treatment because he was a judge, she said.
“The average New Mexican, if they ran over and killed somebody and they were speeding and they didn’t have insurance, they would have, more than likely, probably have been arrested, or at the very least cited, and Michael Real went away scot-free,” Carpenter said.
“This is a judge that is pointing the finger at people on the bench, and there’s three fingers pointing right back at them,” she added.
“When you have a judge like this judge who completely disregards that the law applies to him … what does that say to the public?” she said.
Attorney Luis Robles — a partner in the Robles Rael Anaya law firm where the judge’s nephew Marcus is also a partner and who is representing the judge in the civil case — said Monday it is common for people who have just experienced a traumatic event to behave in ways they ordinarily might not.
“This isn’t a judge who made a bad decision in circumstances where they had time and choices,” Robles said.
“This is a circumstance in which a judge was confronted with a situation that was right in front of him … [he] couldn’t walk away from it and think about it.
“You know, people break,” Robles said.
While a deputy’s report indicated Rael was “obviously distraught about the incident,” deputy body camera footage shows him laughing and joking with deputies on the scene.
Rael, who has been a municipal judge in Questa for more than two decades, was censured once before in 2012, after he issued a temporary restraining order in a case in which he didn’t have jurisdiction after having communicated with one of the parties without the other parties present, according to court records and previous reports.
In that case, the Supreme Court ordered Rael to complete a 12-month supervised probation that includes mentorship under another judge, complete ethics seminars under the National Judicial College and also pay for all the assigned seminars and other costs out of pocket, according to a previous report in The Taos News.
Charley’s estate also has a pending federal lawsuit against the town of Taos alleging police put him in harm’s way when they removed him from his partner’s apartment, then dropped him off intoxicated at a nearby gas station with no money or means to contact anyone after he expressly told one of the officers he had bad eyesight.
Officer dropped him off around 11:09 p.m.
Surveillance camera footage shows him “walking into the night at 11:11 p.m.,” the lawsuit says.
Approximately 45 minutes later, Rael called 911 to report he’d hit a man on the road.
The lawsuit cites state laws that call for intoxicated people to be protected, rather than subjected to criminal prosecution.
Read the full article here
