McKinley County DA fills 11 of 17 vacant prosecutor roles

McKinley County District Attorney John Bernitz has filled 11 of 17 vacant prosecutor positions since taking the role in April 2026, including four full-time assistant prosecutors. The hirings have allowed the office to trim its criminal caseload by 120 cases and reduce the total pending matters from more than 800 to about 680.

“It’s been real good. I’ve been real fortunate,” Bernitz said. “We got a lot of staff that used to work here, all came back.”

Bernitz was appointed by the governor to replace former DA Bernadine Martin, who resigned in February. Court documents later noted that Martin, who the source says refused to admit any wrongdoing, had her law license suspended for six months by the state’s Disciplinary Board.

“Based on that, we were able to reduce the caseload for us and the courts and the public defenders by 120 cases,” Bernitz said.

The 680 remaining cases are split between Bernitz and the four assistant prosecutors. Bernitz said the office receives about 20 to 30 referrals a week, on top of old cases Martin is accused of never filing, improperly dismissing or ignoring. Footage previously released showed cases found in boxes in Martin’s office after she resigned.

“I would say there’s 40 or 50 or 60 of those cases that we’re still looking at,” Bernitz said. “We’ve pulled out all the sex crimes and the murder cases. And we’re still slowly resolving some of the, the other lesser, lesser crimes.”

The office filed charges in four of the murder cases. A contract attorney whose only focus is those murders and eight other outstanding murder cases is handling them.

Victims in some sex crimes cases have declined to move forward, Bernitz said. “It’s hard to explain to somebody that maybe that the case should , it, it could have gone forward if it was, if somebody did something with it 3 or 4 years ago and now it can’t. And they’re not really interested in excuses,” he said.

McKinley County Sheriff James Maiorano III said the office is hearing from other victims who say they never got their day in court. “Maybe once every other week,” Bernitz said.

“I don’t think we have a good grasp of it,” Maiorano said of how many victims may never see court. “Yeah, it’s a lot to think about. It’s a lot to process. I don’t think we truly understand how bad that problem was.”

Gallup Police Chief Erin Toadlena-Pablo added: “I think the heartache in that and, and within our community , that, it’s a big impact on everybody.”

Both the sheriff and chief said Bernitz has helped stabilize the county’s judicial system in the past five months.

“Previously we were doing a job that wasn’t ours, trying to track cases, make sure things made it to court, make sure criminal complaints were in order, and then talking with the victims to see if have you been called or are you going to testify as a witness? We no longer have to do that anymore,” the sheriff said.

The sheriff said the DA’s office now attends command staff meetings and gives time and attention to pretrial detention hearings. “People that need to go to jail are going to jail,” Maiorano said. “And so that’s also sending a community message to say, if you’re going to commit a crime, they’re back. You know, this is not going to get washed under the under the rug.”

The chief said simply being able to reach the DA by phone has made a difference. “Even just to call him and for him to pick up the phone, you know, that that that’s something that I think our department, um, really missed,” Toadlena-Pablo said.

The New Mexico Department of Justice took on 53 cases to assist the office, with at least four going to trial. “We got convictions on those. So, I’m very happy with our group. They put in a lot of extra time, they put in a lot of effort, and they really did, in my mind, they did a great job,” NMDOJ Chief of Criminal Affairs John Duran said.

With the office staffed again, the NMDOJ returned 13 cases, including one against Tyson Long in which murder charges had been dropped three years ago. “For it to be in the courts and then for us to receive subpoenas for that, I think it’s like a sigh of relief,” the chief said.

Gallup’s City Council voted to file a complaint to the state’s Disciplinary Board against Martin’s law license. It is unclear what impact this new complaint could have on Martin’s career as an attorney. Her current suspension is the result of a separate complaint.

Bernitz is still working to hire four more assistant prosecutors. Once he can hand off his court docket, he said, he will focus on managing the office, starting a drug court in the county and getting a pre-prosecution diversion program running.

The Law Office of the Public Defender, budgeted for seven attorneys in Gallup, had one attorney when Martin resigned. It now has four.

New Mexico Chief Public Defender Ben Baur said in a statement: “We are encouraged at the changes we are seeing at the DA’s Office in Gallup. Communication between DAs and defense attorneys has improved. They are handling evidence and court deadlines more effectively. That in turn gives us more time to meet with clients and work our cases. And a more effective court system is better for the community. Thanks in part to these changes and to our intensive recruiting efforts, our attorney ranks are finally growing in Gallup. But we continue to face the same struggles with recruitment and workloads as we do in many of our rural offices.”