BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

The issue of whether or not Los Alamos Municipal Judge Elizabeth Allen should recuse herself from presiding in three cases in her court remains unresolved. Defense attorney William Snowden who represents the defendants in all three cases told Judge Allen in January that his clients did not feel comfortable proceeding with her presiding in their cases due to her business relationship with Los Alamos Chief of Police Dino Sgambellone who rents property from Judge Allen and her husband.

Judge Allen denied Snowden’s requests that she recuse herself from all matters involving any LAPD officer. Snowden appealed the three cases to the First Judicial District Court where the three cases were assigned to Judge Jason Lidyard who recused himself from them. Two of the cases were then reassigned to Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer and the third was reassigned to Judge T. Glenn Ellington.

Snowden petitioned the District Court for a Writ of Superintending Control from Judge Allen’s denial of the request for her recusal. His petition says it’s necessary “that a judge who has a business relationship with the chief of the only law enforcement agency with the authority to enforce laws in a small town recuse herself”.

On February 21, Deputy County Attorney Katie Thwaits informed Dorie Biagianti-Smith, who is under contract with the County to prosecute cases in Municipal Court, in an email that the County Attorney Alvin Leaphart requested that Biagianti-Smith handle the three cases under appeal as she sees fit without any guidance from the County Attorney’s Office. The question of whether the County Attorney’s Office represents Judge Allen and/or Chief Sgambellone was recently submitted to the County by the Los Alamos Reporter but was not answered. Biagianti-Smith’s new role in the three cases is unclear as she is the prosecutor in all three.

On March 7, Snowden filed a motion on behalf of one of his clients requesting that Biagianti-Smith be relieved of any obligation to represent Judge Allen, arguing that Biagianti-Smith was hired to prosecute matters in Municipal Court and not to defend the Judge Allen.

The Reporter reached out to the Municipal Court office Monday to check on the status of the three cases but has not yet received a response. No hearing dates have been set yet in District Court.