District Attorney Candidates Debate ‘Dumpster Fire’

Justin Garcia Las Cruces Bulletin

There are many differences between the two men running for district attorney, and almost all of them were on display during an Oct. 15 debate at Picacho Hills Country Club.

Nestled in the country club’s sparse dining area overlooking the golf course and Organ Mountains, the first noticeable difference between the candidates was their attire: Democrat Fernando Macías wore a dark blue suit with a crisp white shirt and no tie, as well as black and gold cufflinks. His Republican rival, trial attorney Michael Cain, wore a black suit with a ruffled blue shirt, rings on each ring finger and a printed tie with bottles of Tabasco sauce.

“This office is burning down,” Macías said in his opening statement. “And it’s been that way for a decade. The number of successful convictions has continued to decline. The number of lawyers present is in itself a crime. So I ask you to be very selective in this race about who really has the skills to lead the office.”

Macías has served as a county judge, state senator, public defender and head of a border development group, as well as manager of Doña Ana County.

Cain highlighted his years in the courtroom: “I have approximately 25 years of trial experience overall and appear in court on a regular basis. I am considered one of the better trial lawyers, particularly criminal defense attorneys, in the state.”

The two argued throughout the debate on key issues, including prosecutor hiring, dismissal of cases, a state Supreme Court decision, homelessness, mental health and the county jail.

The debate, hosted by the Picacho Hills Property Owners Association, was one of the final forums of this election cycle. Incumbent Gerald Byers was ousted in the Democratic primary by Macías in a four-candidate race. Cain won the Republican primary unopposed.

Both candidates painted a bleak picture of the current state of the office.

“Several judges have described it to me as a dumpster fire,” Cain said. “I think that’s very generous.”

Both Macías and Cain said the office’s struggle to retain prosecutors is affecting its ability to carry out its function. This makes the community worse off, said the two lawyers.

“There are 70 positions in this office, 21 of which are lawyers. And as we speak, eight lawyers have the responsibility of prosecuting hundreds, if not thousands of cases per year,” Macías said. “This is completely untenable.”

According to appropriations requests sent to the New Mexico Legislature and obtained by the Las Cruces Bulletin, the firm lost 10 attorneys and retained three between August 2022 and 2023.

Additionally, none of the attorneys listed in the 2020 appropriations requests remain in the office four years later. Byers, who took over the office in January 2021, attributed the high turnover in debates and interviews with news outlets to a competitive job market.

But his opponents said the high turnover was due to poor leadership that only new leadership could fix. When debate moderator Walt Rubel asked Macías and Cain how they would stem the tide of fleeing lawyers, they gave different answers.

Macías said it boils down to a lack of leadership and skills, noting that good lawyers do not necessarily make effective managers: “You have to have someone who can step in, who can inspire, who is there; Someone who has experience recruiting attorneys and associates, someone who has experience bringing individuals together to solve the problem, someone who will work side-by-side with the other attorneys in the firm and not lock themselves in their office and no prosecution ever pursues a case directly.”

Cain agreed that the problem began with “a real lack of leadership,” but said he had compiled a list of lawyers who had agreed to work for him.

“There are senior (lawyers) who live in this county, who live in surrounding counties and commute every day. I spoke to two of them in Deming on Wednesday last week. … Each of them has more than 25 years of experience. They both said, ‘I’ll work for you on day one,'” Cain said.

Cain praised the police and argued that they were meeting their responsibilities to the criminal justice system through criminal investigations, but prosecutors are letting them down. But he also promised that as top prosecutor he would introduce practices that would force police to present more comprehensive cases.

Cain said if elected, the days of weak cases going to court and being dismissed weeks or months later would be over. To accomplish that, Cain said he will put more cases through a “preliminary hearing,” which is essentially a mini-trial where prosecutors present their evidence, the defense rebuts and the judge decides whether to move forward with the case becomes.

Macías argued that this strategy was so time-consuming that it was ineffective.

“There are too many cases to abandon the grand jury process. There are too many cases. A preliminary hearing must be a mini-hearing before a magistrate judge. This means that all the staff at your disposal, especially if you only have eight or ten lawyers, is not the staff to do this. You can’t reach it. It is not a functioning system,” said Macías, adding that for some crimes such as domestic violence, this extension represents the death knell for the case.

Later in the debate, Cain clarified that not all cases would use this procedure.

Macías and Cain now expect voters to decide the future of the office.