Larry Diaz has seen all different aspects of the criminal justice system in Cibola County. With several years in law enforcement, and time he even served as Cibola County Sheriff, Diaz went on to become a Cibola County Magistrate Judge where he helped to adjudicate justice for the people of Cibola. Due to a non-COVID-19 related illness, the Cibola Citizen struggled to interview all of the sheriff’s candidates, and failed in our ability to speak with Diaz, who was very accommodating with the illness, but we were unable to ever speak with him.
Diaz has more than 25 years in law enforcement. He worked for Grants police Department, starting off his time as a reserve officer on the force. He worked his way up, serving as a school resource officer, a detective – eventually earning his ability to train other officers to become detectives – to a detective sergeant. With GPD, he earned the rank as Administrative Sergeant for the Patrolmen and Detective Divisions. He worked with Milan Police Department where he served as a patrolman and eventually as patrol sergeant/investigator for the small department. When Diaz went to work for the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office, he worked as Sergeant, and was eventually made deputy sergeant before being promoted to Under Sheriff. Eventually, Diaz went on to run for and win his role as Cibola County Sheriff.
While working on his law enfrcement career, Diaz has also been a longtime small business owner, with over 35-years of small business ownership, providing the people of Cibola County with housing.
Before he became a judge, he was an investigator with the 13th Judicial District Court. As an investigator for the courts, he serviced Cibola, Sandoval, and Valencia Counties. Then Diaz decided to step into the role of judge.
Diaz ran for Cibola County Magistrate Judge in 2010, and won. He became the associate judge; in 2014 and again in 2018 Diaz was reelected, in ’18 he became the presiding judge. Diaz has decided to step back into the role of law enforcement and resigned his role as judge in 2022 so he could run for Sheriff.
Diaz said that he is going to focus fighting crime to protect the people and families of Cibola County. Diaz worked for the mines in Cibola County for nine years and is a Cold War Patriot.