No Contest for Khalsa

Former Santa Fe Magistrate Judge Dev Atma Khalsa on Monday pleaded no contest to drunk driving in exchange for a deferred sentence, according to his attorney.

The plea is the final piece after Khalsa’s arrest during the early hours of Feb. 26, when Santa Fe police found him and his vehicle on its side, feet from the northbound St. Francis off-ramp from I-25. Police reports noted that Khalsa smelled of alcohol. Khalsa consistently avoided interviews, but maintained his innocence during judicial disciplinary proceedings and the months after his arrest through his attorneys.

Criminal defense attorney Kitren Fischer refused a phone interview with SFR and instead sent an emailed statement, along with one from her client. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of careless driving and driving without a license and Khalsa agreed to serve 364 days of probation and 24 hours of community service, she confirms. The deferred sentence also means that after he fulfills his probation and community service, a conviction will not appear on his record.

“As a person of a non-Western faith tradition, I have been deeply shaken by what I have seen as a defendant,” Khalsa says in a statement. “I apologize to the Indigenous population of Santa Fe County. Because I am no longer in a position within the system, I can no longer attempt to mitigate the effects the system has on those whose beliefs involve models of atonement that are fundamentally different than those that underpin the American justice system. I feel the sting of that missed opportunity and so I ask for forgiveness from those I might have served in that way. Finally, in this post-Covid moment, I wish everyone peace in their hearts and homes.”

Fischer offers an alternate theory to why the judge appeared incoherent the night of the crash. “Dev Atma was severely concussed in the accident and feels he has been unjustly treated by the hospital and the media,” she writes. “Dev Atma does not feel wronged by the police. At this point, though Dev Atma has viable defenses and maintains his innocence of the charges, the weight of the process and the risk of trial have led him to decide to move on with his life, especially considering that he has already agreed to step down from the bench.”

Fischer did not respond to follow-up questions about Khalsa’s feelings towards reporters or the hospital.

Police failed to ask Khalsa to submit to a breath test. After hospital staff cleared him the morning of the crash, Khalsa then refused a blood test, which led police to charge him with aggravated drunk driving. But police quickly reversed course and dropped the more serious charge. The day after his arrest, Khalsa showed up to Magistrate Court to hear cases, but the New Mexico Supreme Court had already approved an order barring him from the building and suspending him with pay. The New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission later successfully moved to also cut his pay while serving his suspension.

By May, with his criminal case still pending, Khalsa and the commission came to an agreement that if he offered his resignation and to never run for, or hold, a judicial position in New Mexico the commission would drop its own investigation. The state Supreme Court accepted the agreement on July 3, effectively ending Khalsa’s judicial career. Days later, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Santa Fe prosecutor Morgan Wood as Khalsa’s replacement.

Khalsa won election to the bench in Nov. 2022, but was quickly tapped to finish out his predecessor’s term instead of waiting to take office in Jan. 2023. One of his campaign planks was to reform the court’s DWI process to make it more expeditious.

In her statement, Fischer says Khalsa “is proud of the campaign he ran, and believes Santa Fe has been advanced by certain parts of his platform; there is a domestic violence specialty court program hopefully on the way,” adding that he “has used this opportunity to take stock of all his relationships, including with substances and with the legal system.”

“He is now ready for the next chapter,” Fischer writes.

Fischer did respond to a request to elaborate on what she meant by Khalsa’s relationships with “substances” and the “legal system” or how they may have changed.