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Tony Mace
Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace is hanging up his sheriff hat in exchange for that of magistrate judge. With election season near and current Division 1 Magistrate Judge Larry Diaz deciding to run for sheriff, Mace decided to give this new role of public safety and service a shot.
Mace was born and raised in Cibola County, graduated from high school here in 1995, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps shortly after. Mace then started working at the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office in 1998, entering reports into computers for the unemployment department. Mace worked his way up the change of command over the years and has now been in law enforcement for over 20 years.
When explaining the thought process behind his decision to run for the position of magistrate judge, Mace shared that not only has he fulfilled 20 years as a law enforcement officer, meeting requirements for PERA retirement in New Mexico, but he has also reached his term limit as sheriff. New Mexico’s constitution indicates that an individual may only serve two consecutive terms, for a total of eight years, as sheriff. Under this policy, Mace has “termed-out” and can no longer run for sheriff. Facing this reality, Mace had to decide what he wanted to do next.
“I love being the sheriff, I love working for the sheriff’s office. Public safety and law enforcement is kind of like my passion. I enjoy it, I enjoy helping people. And so unfortunately, I can’t run for sheriff anymore, and so I decided, ‘Well, you know, I spent the last over 20 years enforcing the law, let me maybe go to the judge side and try applying the law, and see what it’s like from that side.’ It was a hard decision; I was so undecided on what I wanted to do. So I figured, you know, I just want to give it a shot, and I can still be involved in the community, I can still be involved in public safety in some form, and I can still help out the community, because I enjoy that,” said Mace. Mace acknowledged that while the public safety aspect will be familiar, he knows this experience will be different and a bit of an adjustment. “I’ll be honest, taking on the responsibility of being the judge, I’ve got a lot to learn, and I’ll be the first to admit that. And I’m willing to learn, I’ve got an open mind.” Although it will be a new experience, Mace believes that his background in law enforcement will benefit him in that it gives him a unique perspective of the criminal element and process. Mace thinks, with his sheriff background, he will be able to better hold the criminal element accountable, while also upholding individual, constitutional rights.
The principles that Mace emphasizes are the ideas of being innocent until proven guilty and upholding constitutional rights for everyone. Mace explained that he believes it is the judge’s job to protect and uphold those rights while applying the law. Mace already has a quite a bit of knowledge regarding the magistrate court, including that issues handled by the magistrate court typically include DWI, domestic violence, misdemeanor battery, traffic offenses, some civil dispute cases, etc. Mace also explained that magistrate divisions are not based on jurisdiction but are rather based on county population and layout. Essentially, the division one and division two judge have the same roles, responsibilities, and caseloads. Each county is simply designated a certain number of judges based on population and layout, and Cibola County has two.
Mace says that the qualities that make him well-prepared and wellsuited for the position of magistrate judge are that he is involved, active, and invested in the community. “I still got a lot of energy left in me, and I want to learn more, and I want to do more for the community. And I think that that drive may be beneficial in that role… It’s a new experience for me, and I like a challenge,” shared Sheriff Mace.
Mace, who is running unopposed, and will therefore be the next Division 1 Magistrate Judge, said what he is most looking forward to in the role is better helping and assisting law enforcement officers.
As for how he anticipates handling the more challenging aspects of the job, Mace explained, “The difficult thing, that’s gonna be for me… is learning the judicial standards, the Code of Ethics for the judicial side, because there’s things that you can say and there’s things that you can do that you can’t do as a judge, because you have to remain fair and impartial on every case. And for me, in the role as sheriff, I’ve been pretty outspoken on a lot of topics,” Mace said with a laugh. “Which, you know, I believe in wholeheartedly, and a lot of what I’ve been outspoken on is constitutional stuff, protecting rights, and things like that. And being able to be on a platform and voice some of those things — on the judicial side, I’m not gonna be able to do a lot of that. And that’s gonna be hard,” said Mace, again with a laugh.
When asked what issues, if any, that he would want to emphasize or prioritize in this new role, Mace said that he would like to focus a bit on “catch-and-release” pro grams, also known on the judicial side as “pretrial services.” Mace said that these services are “crippling our communities” and other communities as well, and that he wants to see if there’s anything he can do to improve that system and make it so that individuals who are a true threat or danger to a community are not released back into the community as easily.
“I think that bridging the gap between judicial, prosecution, and law enforcement, bringing those three entities together and making sure that you guys are working together, you have a clear line of communication and a partnership, we can really figure out ways to hold these repeat offenders in custody,” expressed Mace.
After outlining some of these important issues, priorities, and plans, Mace also took a moment to acknowledge that while he has all of these priorities and things he would like to focus on, he also knows it could change as he enters the role of judge and learns all of the standards, policies, and processes of the court. He does want to try, though, to do the best he can, even if it means exploring all possible avenues that are appropriate for his role as judge.
Finally, Mace talked about the importance and roles of the magistrate court judges: “You’re there to help the community. You’re there to make sure that rights are protected. You’re there to make sure that the judicial process is followed properly. Sheriff Mace, soon-to-be Honorable Judge, says that while he is running unopposed, he still takes the process seriously and is eager to learn and do his best in this new role.