Center for Family Justice
Centerfor Family Justice
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Working to preserve the right to parent for single-parent and blended families involved with the family court system
 
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 Next monthly meeting:
2:00 pm -3:00 pm, Saturday, October 4, 2008. Location: Cumberland Presbyterian Church at the corner of Academy and Moon. Park in the back (south side), we are in the Adult Education wing, just inside the door (Rm 403).
Topic: No speaker this month, just a business meeting
Judge Ernesto Romero ignores substantial evidence of major wrongdoing, including addictive drug use, in case by custody evaluator Dr. Gayle Zieman.
On August 10, 2004, Judge Ernesto Romero was provided with evidence and expert testimony in a hearing on case DR 95-2675 (Second Judicial District) showing that a well-known custody evaluator, psychologist Gayle Zieman:
  1. was taking a very large dosage of a highly addictive Valium-type drug called Temazepam during the entire time he was an evaluator on this case (and many others),
  2. had performed work that was not ordered by the Court and then demanded payment for it,
  3. had lied under oath about Respondent's psychological test score, grossly exaggerating the score to a level needing institutionalization when in fact it was perfectly normal,
  4. had made claims that Respondent was "narcissistic" and "pathological" in written reports when his own test scores showed no evidence of such serious claims
  5. had failed to properly handle evidence that Petitioner had sexually abused Respondent and failed to make note of it in his three reports to the Court,
  6. had stated to Respondent during a meeting that he was angry with her and that his anger could impact his resulting report regarding the parties' son (an official transcript of a tape of this meeting was submitted to the Court as evidence),
  7. had withheld material evidence throughout the case that Petitioner had an extremely high psychological test score (in a range considered in need of institutionalization).
Gayle Zieman had not been the Court's expert evaluator on this case for a year. Judge Walker, a prior judge in the case, released him from the case in August 2003 after it was shown at trial that he did not state the truth in his many reports to the Court and that he failed to correct his many slanderous claims about Respondent for the Court after being provided with ample evidence refuting his claims. Rather than appropriately adjudicating the situation involving misconduct of the Court's expert evaluator, Judge Romero ignored substantial evidence and the evaluator's own admission of drug use, chided and humiliated Respondent when she brought this evidence to light, demanded that she pay the evaluator for work not ordered by the Court, and blamed her for "the conflict in this case"! (Note: Respondent had already paid Dr. Zieman thousands of dollars in fees, paying him in full for a complete custody evaluation resulting in a parenting plan.) In addition to ordering Respondent to pay this evaluator for his misconduct and finding her in contempt of court for failing to pay the expert when there was never a judgment for a specific amount to pay, Judge Romero ordered the Respondent to pay Gayle Zieman for his time in the courtroom and suggested that Petitioner's attorney file an affidavit for fees, inappropriately giving legal advice to an attorney on the case from the bench. In fact, Judge Romero's order states that Respondent's provision of this information to the Court was "frivolous" and that she did not prove anything. You will find in the transcript listed below that Judge Romero acted as a Prosecutor, not a Judge, during this hearing, calling witnesses and questioning them, then allowing for a "cross-examination" after his questioning. (Download as pdf) Warning - file is over 50 pages (319 KB), but very interesting reading! The verbal hearing tape or CD is even more alarming - one can hear the Judge yelling a number of times. Such behavior is a common problem for litigants in Judge Romero's courtroom today. A number of family law attorneys in Albuquerque refuse to take cases involving this judge because he is so unpredictable. The order resulting from this hearing is now on appeal with the New Mexico Court of Appeals. In the meantime, Respondent pays $350 a month to a drug-addicted psychologist who lied under oath, ignored sexual abuse, and withheld important material evidence from the case. In addition, she must now pay for an appeal. This is the first of a number of cases to be published here showing just how far Judge Romero has deviated from reasonable rulings on the bench.
more on Judge Romero
Judge Romero participates in ex parte communication
Judge Romero ignores evidence of child sexual abuse
Judge Romero decides issues without notice to litigants or any hearings
Judge Romero jails father as felon for alleged $1350 delinquent child support
Judge Ernesto Romero Makes Father into a Federal Criminal
last updated on October 7, 2007
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