A Santa Fe judge ruled Monday that at least one of 66 marriage licenses issued by a Sandoval County clerk to gay and lesbian couples remains valid and subject to divorce action.

State District Judge Sarah Singleton's decision came in a hearing in a divorce petition brought by Angela Maria Carrejo against her former partner, Karla JaNelle Haught.

Haught, representing herself, moved to dismiss the petition, arguing that her marriage to Carrejo was invalid from the beginning because New Mexico law does not authorize same-sex marriage.

Carrejo's lawyer, Amber Train, countered that New Mexico does not ban same-sex marriage and that no judge has struck down the licenses issued by Sandoval County Clerk Victoria Dunlap on Feb. 20, 2004.

Singleton avoided the broader issue of whether gay marriage is legal in New Mexico, but stuck to the issue of whether the gay marriage licenses were invalid from the beginning, or could be declared invalid later.

Dunlap may have been negligent or mistaken, Singleton said, but the licenses she issued are "not void from the inception, but merely voidable."

The judge said that under state statutes, the only type of marriage that might be void from the beginning would be an incestuous one.

Dunlap's same-sex marriage licenses were never invalidated because the matter was never litigated to its conclusion after former Attorney General Patricia Madrid persuaded Dunlap to stop issuing them. A judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop Dunlap from issuing more same-sex marriage licenses, but that order expired.

Outside the courtroom, Haught, 43, and Carrejo, 52, declined comment.

Train said the decision means the divorce case will proceed, along with the division of property and possible spousal support.

Haught and Carrejo are disputing the ownership of a residence on the near-west side of downtown Santa Fe and a Rio Arriba County ranch. Both properties were given to Haught by her parents, but Carrejo's name has appeared on the titles.

Train said the case is New Mexico's first regarding same-sex divorce and that Monday's ruling stands as a precedent of sorts.

"I believe it will be something that would be considered by other judges in other districts," she said. "It's not a binding precedent, but it certainly could be persuasive to other judges."

In court, Haught began by saying she and Carrejo are not the only same-sex couples to end their relationship after obtaining marriage licenses in Sandoval County, but they are the first whose breakup became a "spectacle" in the media.

"I'm not a poster child for gay marriage," she said.

Haught, who works as a state Corrections Department attorney, asked Singleton not to be swayed by a national gay group that has warned her that if she did not settle with Carrejo, "I would experience their wrath," she said.

Singleton, who said she had not heard from the gay group, frequently interrupted Haught to ask her pointed questions: Did the attorney general's letter have any "precedential value?" Did any government official take action to declare the same-sex marriage licenses invalid?

Haught answered "no" to both questions.

Asked if she and Carrejo identified themselves as a married couple between 2004 and 2008, Haught said they referred to themselves as "partners" or "girlfriends."

Train's argument cited last week's decision by a San Francisco federal judge striking down California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. But Singleton said the Carrejo/Haught case is not "ripe" for a broad ruling on the constitutionality of gay marriage, because there has been no evidentiary hearing.

"The people of New Mexico deserve no less," she said.

According to a protection order provided to The New Mexican by Haught last week, former 1st Judicial District domestic hearing officer Margaret Kegel last summer ordered Carrejo to stay away from Haught because of domestic abuse.

The order says that on Oct. 12, 2008, Carrejo became angry with Haught for coming home late, punched her in the mouth, then moved out of the west-side property's main house and into its guest house, threw Haught's belongings outside, changed the locks and put Haught's deceased father's ashes on top of a garbage receptacle.

When Haught was able to return to the house, the order says, she found it "infested with pet urine and feces."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com