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The New Mexico Supreme Court issued a 30-day notice for McKinley County DA Bernadine Martin to respond to a petition filed by Attorney General Raúl Torrez for removal of office

GALLUP, N.M. —

On Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, the New Mexico State Supreme Court issued a 30-day notice for McKinley County District Attorney Bernadine Martin to submit a response to New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez's petition for removal from office.

In April 2025, Martin's office was defunded under the $10.8 billion budget bill signed into law over allegations of low prosecution rates and high caseloads. In August 2025, Martin held a press conference at McKinley County's Courthouse Square. However, she was faced with opposition to her pleas for assistance.

View State Supreme Court 30-day order .

On Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, KOAT legal expert John Day weighed in on the possible implications of the case.

What are the possible implications?

"The Supreme Court says she has 30 days to respond to that petition, which alleges all sorts of misconduct and malfeasance and incompetence in the DA's office and Gallup. If DA Martin fails to respond, it's certainly very likely that the state Supreme Court would remove her," KOAT legal expert John Day said.

"If the DA, Martin, wants to stay in office, she's got to do a good job of rebutting what the attorney general says. She would need to provide a written response to the Supreme Court justices explaining why she should be allowed to keep her job and why the attorney general is wrong and these allegations of misconduct and malfeasance and general incompetence," Day said.

"This could be an argument in front of the Supreme Court justices down the road — both sides trying to state their case. It's a chance for her to publicly state her case and defend herself against the effort to get her out of office," Day said.

On Wednesday, KOAT reached out to Martin's office following the State Supreme Court's 30-day order. Her assistant forwarded us to her voicemail to leave a message. We have not heard back at the time of airing.

This is a developing story. Stay updated on the latest news with the KOAT app. Download .

Two New Mexico lawmakers have invited a senior Health and Human Services official to visit Gallup Indian Medical Center to observe what they say are dangerous delays in patient care caused by new Trump administration policies.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., sent a letter Tuesday to Mark Cruz, a senior advisor to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., requesting he witness “firsthand how the Administration’s bureaucratic red tape is limiting access to basic and essential health care services,” according to a news release from Leger Fernández’s office.

The lawmakers cited a new “Presidential Appointee Approver and Departmental Efficiency Review” policy that they say is causing delays in contract renewals for essential personnel, equipment and services at the medical center.

The policy stems from President Donald Trump’s Feb. 26 executive order implementing the Department of Government Efficiency’s cost reduction initiative. Under the new rules, all Indian Health Service facilities must have contracts and related expenses approved by the acting IHS director, rather than locally at individual hospitals.

“The new policy has dramatically and dangerously slowed down care at GIMC and brought some essential services to a halt entirely,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to Cruz.

According to the lawmakers, the medical center has reduced available beds and scaled back maternal and emergency care services. They said the changes restrict healthcare workers’ ability to immediately diagnose and treat urgent conditions.

The Indian Health Service relies heavily on contracts for services ranging from laboratory work to paying traveling doctors and nurses, the lawmakers noted.

Cruz, a member of the Klamath Tribes, has previously stated publicly that the new policy “has not interrupted the IHS’s ability to fulfill any responsibilities,” according to the letter.

The lawmakers argued the policy violates federal trust and treaty obligations, writing that these agreements “require the federal government to adequately fund and staff IHS hospitals, including GIMC.”

Gallup McKinley County Schools in New Mexico is in a legal dispute with Stride, a virtual learning provider, over allegations of overcrowding classrooms and breaching contracts

GALLUP, N.M. —

A New Mexico school district is alleging a company that provides distance learning to its students is violating state law, claiming it put too many students in the virtual classroom.

Meanwhile, two other New Mexico school districts have now started using the same company.

That company, Stride, has been in a court battle with Gallup McKinley County Schools.

The district spends as much as $30 million of taxpayer money to provide education to students throughout the state who can't physically make it to school.

Stride, however, tells Target 7 the school district's claims are unfounded and says the superintendent is retaliating against them.

There are as many as 4,000 students in New Mexico who have taken advantage of the agreement between Stride and the school district, which has used Stride to provide options to students who live in remote areas and on reservations anywhere in New Mexico.

“It gives choice and opportunities for parents and students,” said Gallup McKinley County School Supt. Mike Hyatt. “So, they were somebody that worked with us that we procured to help us deliver instruction to students across New Mexico.”

The program also helped address the lack of teachers, however, “things went south with this particular company, and they breached the contract that we had with them, so the contract was canceled,” Hyatt said.

According to Hyatt, things went south when a data analyst noticed that graduation rates had dropped 27 percent and student turnover climbed to 30 percent.

“I was shocked,” Hyatt said. “I was also shocked with this company that was for profit margins was shoving students against the state law into classrooms.”

In response an attorney for Stride told Target 7 that the accusations from Hyatt are untrue and he is retaliating against them because they did not select him for a job.

“Like everything, there's two sides to every story,” attorney Laura Sanchez said. “And, in this case, unfortunately, there is a narrative that the school district has put forward that is simply not true. The important thing is that these students were getting quality education. They had a teacher, they had education coaches. There was a lot of parent involvement.”

Hyatt said they discovered that hundreds of students were being placed into single classrooms.

He claims it is in violation of this state law that governs student-to-teacher ratios.

KOAT legal expert John Day said the law is unclear if it applies to virtual learning.

“If the allegations are that the distance learning company is violating state law by not maintaining a proper student-to-teacher ratio, well, that's a serious allegation and it would have to be addressed in the court case ultimately,” Day said.

After the school district cancelled its contract with Stride, the two parties sued each other, claiming everything from breach of contract to violations of the state's open meetings act.

The latter is the only item currently pending; however, the two sides are expected to go to arbitration. The New Mexico Foundation of Open Government joined Stride in suing the school district.

They claim the district was already looking for a replacement company before the board voted to terminate the contract a year early.

“We sought to find a vendor that we felt was honest, that cared about kids, that was not going to abuse our school district or our kids anymore,” Hyatt said.

Stride has alleged that Hyatt is bitter because he had applied for a position in the company in December and was informed he didn't get selected in February just two months before the contract as cancelled.

Hyatt told Target 7 that the position was eliminated, and he was unaware of all of the issues until after he had applied.

“We believe, felt that he had been wronged by not being hired, that he turned around and terminated a contract mid-year,” Sanchez said.

Stride has filed a complaint against Hyatt with the state's ethics commission and the school district says it is asking for the Attorney General, the State Auditor and the Public Education Department to investigate.

Meanwhile, two other school districts - Chama Valley and Santa Rosa - recently signed agreements with Stride, picking up where Gallup-McKinley County left off.

“I actually talked with one of the superintendents and told him this is what happened,” Hyatt said, “I was very honest with him, and they still went with Stride.

Sanchez says about 2,000 students who were in the program with Gallup McKinley County schools stayed with it under the new school districts.

"And, they are very much looking forward to continuing to have quality online education," she said.

Target 7 received a complaint that was sent to the public education department from a Stride teacher alleging the company was more concerned about profit than education. Stride had not seen that complaint prior to receiving it from Target 7.

Target 7 reached out to PED and have yet to hear back.

Some say it could be a violation of state law

GALLUP, N.M. —

McKinley County District Attorney Bernadine Martin has been under fire for her low prosecution rates and high caseloads. She is now coming under fire for what she has been doing outside of the DA’s office.

Target 7 has obtained a document showing that she had appeared in the Navajo Nation Family Court, which some say could be a violation of state law.

“There are laws in New Mexico that say that an elected district attorney cannot practice law privately,” said KOAT Legal Expert John Day. “The reason behind the law prohibiting them from having a private law practice is, first of all, their obligation is first and foremost to the people of their district, the people who elected them, the voters. But secondly, if you're a district attorney with that amount of power and you're engaging in a private-law practice, it's the appearance of impropriety.”

Last month, the Legislature de-funded District Attorney Martin's office, and now the San Juan County DA has taken over.

The court hearing occurred in February 2023. At the time, Martin had already been in office for two years. She was arguing that one of the parties owed her client attorney’s fees in the tune of $2,900.

The order to pay attorney fees was made in 2018, before Martin was elected. The judge ruled in her client's favor.

“One of the issues here is that apparently she was practicing law in the Navajo Tribal Court,” Day said. “The law doesn't specifically prohibit that, but it does say that elected district attorneys cannot have a private law practice on the side.”

Sen. George Muno, D-McKinley County, has been critical of Martin and wants her removed.

“You cannot practice private law in any way, shape or form. And so it's clear that she violated the statute,” Munoz said.

Munoz said he suspects there are more cases that show she was practicing privately while holding office, though Target 7 searched state court records and could not find any.

Court records on tribal land are not available online.

“It's in the Attorney General's hands,” Munoz said. “I mean, if the Attorney General really wants to prosecute under the statute, which he told me that they were seeing the grand jury for this case, then the Attorney General needs to do his job too.”

We reached out to Martin and her attorney about the Navajo Nation case.

“The fact that this is a one more revelation about how she's practicing certainly means that she's going to have a tough time trying to regain the trust of the people of her district and the state of New Mexico,” Day said

Target 7 reached out to the Attorney General's Office to get a response and have not yet heard back.