The Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court is the Judicial system of the metropolitan areas of Albuquerque, New Mexico and Bernalillo County, New Mexico, USA. The Metropolitan Courthouse is located in Downtown Albuquerque.
The Metropolitan Court system was established in 1980, all judges are elected by eligible voters in Bernalillo County. Judges hold 4 year terms, in 19 divisions. There are no term limits in the court system and elections are partisan. [1]
To be eligible for an office of the Metropolitan Court, a candidate must be a member of the New Mexico Bar and have practiced law in New Mexico for approximately three years.
| Division | Name | Party | Took office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor E. Valdez | Democrat | 2004 |
| 2 | Christine Rodriguez | Democrat | 2017 |
| 3 | Renee Torres | Democrat | 2017 |
| 4 | Courtney Weaks | Democrat | 2015 |
| 5 | Frank A. Sedillo | Democrat | 2008 |
| 6 | Maria I. Dominguez | Democrat | 2008 |
| 7 | Rosemary Cosgrove-Aguilar | Democrat | 2014 |
| 8 | Jill Martinez | Democrat | 2015 |
| 9 | Yvette K. Gonzales | Democrat | 2010 |
| 10 | Brittany Maldonado Malott | Democrat | 2019 |
| 11 | Sandra Engle | Democrat | 2006 |
| 12 | Jason Jaramillo | Democrat | 2019 |
| 13 | Michelle Castillo–Dowler | Republican | 2013 |
| 14 | Vidalia G. Chavez | Democrat | 2014 |
| 15 | Felicia Blea-Rivera | Democrat | 2019 |
| 16 | David A. Murphy | Democrat | 2019 |
| 17 | Henry A. Alaniz | Republican | 2011 |
| 18 | Rosie Lazcano–Allred | Democrat | 2005 |
| 19 | Linda S. Rogers | Democrat | 2006 |
Persons being held for trial at the Metropolitan Court, or convicted of misdemeanors and serving sentences under 12 months, are incarcerated in the county jail facility, the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), about 10 miles west of Albuquerque, on a rural mesa. The 500,000-square-foot (46,000 m2) campus employs around 500 staff, and houses over 2,000 inmates. Construction was completed in 2002, to replace the overcrowded, in-town county jail near the courthouse. It is the county’s largest public facility, and single greatest consumer of electricity, using, for example, 12,627,000 kilowatts in 2012, at a cost of $981,563. Use of solar power at the facility has increased, and as of January 2014, 20% of its power was provided by a 1-megawatt system of photovoltaic panels. [2]
Albuquerque, abbreviated as ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the state's primary economic and business hub. The city's nicknames are The Duke City and Burque, both of which reference its 1706 founding by Nuevo México governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés as La Villa de Alburquerque. Named in honor of then Viceroy the 10th Duke of Alburquerque, the Villa was an outpost on El Camino Real for the Tiquex and Hispano towns in the area. Since the city's founding it has continued to be included on travel and trade routes including Santa Fe Railway (ATSF), Route 66, Interstate 25, Interstate 40, and the Albuquerque International Sunport. The 2019 census-estimated population of the city is 560,513, making Albuquerque the 32nd-most populous city in the United States and the fourth-largest in the Southwest behind Phoenix and Las Vegas, and also slightly smaller than El Paso. It is the principal city of the Albuquerque metropolitan area, which has 915,927 residents as of July 2018. The metropolitan population includes Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Placitas, Zia Pueblo, Los Lunas, Belen, South Valley, Bosque Farms, Jemez Pueblo, Cuba, and part of Laguna Pueblo. This metro is included in the larger Albuquerque–Santa Fe–Las Vegas combined statistical area (CSA), with a population of 1,171,991 as of 2016. The CSA constitutes the southernmost point of the Southern Rocky Mountain Front megalopolis, including other major Rocky Mountain region cities such as Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado, with a population of 5,467,633 according to the 2010 United States Census.
The Pete V. Domenici United States Courthouse is a federal courthouse located in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. The building was completed in 1998 and named in honor of Senator Pete Domenici at a ceremony in 2004. Since its completion it has been joined at the intersection of Fourth and Lomas by two additional courthouses, the Bernalillo County Courthouse on the southwest corner and the Metropolitan Courthouse on the northwest corner. The seven-story courthouse is 176 feet (54 m) tall, placing it tenth on the list of Albuquerque's tallest buildings.
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