Soco Mayor Reps Constituent in Case AGAINST Socorro PD

File this under the most Socorro thing you've ever heard.

The current Mayor of Socorro - Elia Garcia - is an attorney and the former municipal judge in Socorro.

She's still practicing law, which by itself isn't a big deal. However, she is representing a constituent (which if that by itself isn't a conflict, is at least a REALLY bad practice) in a case AGAINST the Socorro Police Department.

I don't know that I have ever heard of a case were the Mayor of a municipality represented someone in their municipality against their own police department and I'm pretty sure its a MAJOR problem - ethically and legally.

It gets worse.

The case was going to be heard in the Socorro Municipal Court. The Socorro municipal judge saw an immediate conflict and referred the case out to Judge Lujan, the JP court in the valley.

There are so many conflicts here. The mayor representing a resident of Socorro is already problematic. Then its against her own police department - to which she has more access to information than another attorney would and to which the Chief answers to her and council. The city prosecutor is also an employee of the City of Socorro.

I don't know if the rest of council or the city attorney are aware of this situation, but I can't imagine that they know.

Until now.

I seriously can't wrap my head around how this could even possibly ever be a real scenario.

This wouldn't even be believable on Casos de la Vida Real.